With our correspondent in Nairobi, Sébastien Németh

Despite his arrest warrant, Paul Gicheru was not hiding. On the contrary. Since the ICC affair, the lawyer had in some ways been "rewarded" by Kenyan authorities, with prestigious positions in public institutions. In 2014, he had been appointed head of the Public Procurement Review Board. Since 2018, he had been presiding over the Export Processing Zones Authority, an entity specializing in exports.

But the ICC had not forgotten him. According to the Office of the Prosecutor, it was he who coordinated a campaign launched in April 2013 to systematically approach and attempt to influence witnesses with bribes: 5,000 to 50,000 dollars as well as employment opportunities were thus offered to six of them. Paul Gicheru would have finalized the agreements, organized the official recantations which were sometimes even signed in his office…

In April 2016, the proceedings against Vice-President William Ruto were abandoned due to lack of evidence, but also because many witnesses had changed their minds. Except that the ICC had taken some precautions.

When the Ruto case closed, the Court had refused to formally acquit the vice-president, making clear that the case could be reopened if new evidence surfaced. It is not known why Paul Gicheru turned himself in. But the secrets he holds could quickly prove embarrassing.