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abujagirl
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Kenya's vice president William Ruto pleaded innocent to crimes against humanity charges at the International Criminal Court today.
As the parties took their places in the courtroom before the judges arrived, Ruto appeared relaxed, laughing and smiling with his lawyers. Joshua arap Sang, his co-accused, gave a reporter the thumbs-up sign.
According to news24, Fatou Bensouda, the ICC's prosecutor, describing the charges in court said, "The crimes of which Mr Ruto and Mr Sang are charged were not just random and spontaneous acts of brutality".
"This was a carefully planned and executed plan of violence. Ruto's ultimate goal was to seize political power for himself and his party in the event he could not do so via the ballot box".
Ruto and Sang are charged with co-orchestrating a post-election bloodbath five years ago, working with co-conspirators to murder, deport and persecute supporters of rival political parties in Kenya's Rift Valley region.