Alichokisema Mtangazaji katika Mahakama ya ICC

Mwandishi wa habari ambaye pia ni mtangazaji wa redio nchini Kenya, Joseph arap Sang ameiambia Mahakama ya Kimataifa ya Uhalifu wa Kivita (ICC), Hague nchini Uholanzi kuwa, hana hatia, na ni mara ya kwanza kwake kushitakiwa mahakamani.

Sang ameiambia mahakama hiyo kuwa imepotoshwa, yeye si mtu SAHIHI kwa mashitaka husika mahakamani hapo na ipo siku Kenya, dunia na kila mtu ataujua ukweli. 

 Soma hapo chini

Serving as his own character witness, Joshua arap Sang Wednesday took it upon himself to make an impassioned plea for his acquittal before the International Criminal Court.

Addressing himself to the three judge chamber that will either acquit or convict him of crimes against humanity, Sang said the fact that he stood before them was testament to a gross miscarriage of justice.

“If the prosecution could have investigated and not allowed itself to be misled, they would not today have the wrong person in this court,” he lamented.

He accused the International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecution with Fatou Bensouda at the helm of purposely causing him grave harm by failing to properly investigate the circumstances surrounding the 2007-8 Post-Election Violence.

“The prosecution has the wrong person here and one time, one day, the world, Kenya and everyone will know the truth,” he testified.

He said that had the prosecution bothered to question him, they would have found out that his family was residing in Eldoret, a hotbed of the 2007-8 PEV, at the time they accused him of calling on members of the Kalenjin community to take up arms.

“My young family was in Eldoret by then… m wife my three-year-old child, my five-month-old child. And here a foolish arap Sang according to the prosecution directing attacks at the heart of Eldoret?” he posed incredulously.

He went on to state that not only was his family being put up in a Kikuyu household, members of his extended family were Kikuyu and he therefore found it hard to believe that the prosecution could accuse him of actively seeking to evict Kikuyus from the Rift Valley.

“We have intermarried, my own first cousin is married to a Kikuyu and they have kids, could I have chased them for my sister to miss a husband, could I have married her?” he asked.

Sang went on to state that his faith in God alone, could not have permitted him to advocate for such atrocities as burning alive defenceless families in a church.

“Currently I am the patron of my local church. In my life I’ve been a praise and worship leader in our church AIC Fellowship in Eldoret. If really this arap Sang is a criminal, could these people from the church give me an opportunity to serve in different departments?” he asked rhetorically.

Other than a devout Christian, Sang described himself as a professional journalist who loathes contravening the code of ethics that governs his profession.

“I believe I was born a broadcaster. When I was young I used to listen to radio; BBC and many local radio stations in Kenya with the urge and need to become a broadcaster one day,” he recounted.

Now, he said, his dreams of a blemish-free journalistic career had been dashed through what he said was the prosecution’s false testimony against him.

“I resigned from Kass because this is where the prosecution said I was doing my criminal things. I couldn’t do my programme, the one I love, and to date I’m not seeking any job because I want to deal with this animal,” he said.

He then asked the chamber to consider how unlikely it would have been for the Kenyan government to allow him to instigate violence, live on air, between January 1 and 4 without shutting down KASS FM.

“The government one time raided the offices of a mainstream media on the suspicion that they were going to publish material that was a threat to national security… was I too short to be noticed by the law?”

This coupled with his faith in God and clean record, Sang held, would eventually vindicate him. 

 “My entire life I have never stood before any court because I am a law abiding person… (and) I believe that the judges before this court will hear and determine all this one day and will free the innocent journalist.”