Lawyer Paul Gicheru who was a suspect at the International Criminal Court is dead.
Gicheru was found dead in his Karen home on Monday night.
Police said that Gicheru was found dead with the cause of death yet to be known. "He had late lunch and felt unwell and went to bed but he did not wake up," police said.
Police said he was found unresponsive at about 7 pm.
"His son too collapsed and was taken to Karen hospital in stable condition," police added.
Police arrived at scene later and announced a probe had been opened.
The family said they will address media on Tuesday even as Journalists were stopped at his gate.
Gicheru surrendered to the ICC on November 2, 2020, pursuant to an arrest warrant issued on March 10, 2015, by Pre-Trial Chamber II of the ICC.
The Kenyan lawyer was accused of offences against the administration of justice by corruptly influencing witnesses of the Court.
This was after the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber A on 15 July 2021, confirmed the charges of offences against the administration of justice brought by the Prosecutor and committed him to trial.
The ICC accused Gicheru of playing a key role in a scheme to influence witnesses.
Ruto and his co-accused Sang were both charged with instigating ethnic violence after the disputed 2007 election in which more than 1,000 people died and hundreds of thousands were displaced.
However, the ICC judges ruled in 2016 that the two had no case to answer, although they left the door open to possible fresh charges in future, noting that the case had been hampered by political interference and threats against witnesses.
A warrant of arrest by ICC was subsequently issued against Gicheru in 2015 for offences against the administration of justice consisting in corruptly influencing witnesses regarding cases from the situation in Kenya.
In what astounded both his lawyers and government officials, Gicheru who had been a wanted man for years, surrendered to the ICC in 2020.
Gicheru, who was also the chairman of the Export Processing Zone Authority, said he deliberately chose to make his travel to the Hague a secret so as not to trouble anyone.
The lawyer vehemently denied rumours and accusations that he flew to the Netherlands to try and fix Ruto by reviving the ICC case against the country’s second-in-command.
He said surrendering to the ICC was a personal decision to honour the arrest warrant.
Gicheru remained at the ICC detention centre in The Hague for three months, a stay which he termed as “comfortable” revealing that he was given good treatment by both the Netherlands Government and the court and had access to what he wanted.
“I was given my own room at the detention centre. The rooms are good, with a television and a personal computer connected to the internet. I could also eat whatever I wanted but could buy food at times if what I wanted was not on the menu,” Gicheru said.
Gicheru said detainees were also allowed limited access to phones, and that their families were allowed to visit them anytime they wished without restrictions.
In an exclusive interview with The Standard soon after returning home last year, Gicheru cut out as a confident and jovial person who was on the path to vindicating himself.
He said that by giving himself in, he had lifted a huge burden off his shoulders and was now a happy man.
“Owing to the nature of the matter, it was entirely a voluntary and personal decision in strict and exclusive consultation with my family without the participation of any third party. Any speculation on any third party involvement was entirely wrong and should be ignored,” Gicheru said.
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