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The Specter of Violence
Back to Ruto. In 2002, it was alleged that he had slapped Reuben Chesire, a Nandi elder and a former Chairman of the Industrial Development Bank over a dispute at State House, Nairobi. If that was an allegation, however, a threat by Ruto that he would assault Chesire at a future date was reported in fact by the Daily Nation which also links Ruto to incitement and violence in the Rift Valley. According to UK’s Daily Telegraph , during the 2002 campaign Ruto was one of two government ministers warned by the Electoral Commission for “serious polling offences.”
One of the more memorable moments in KANU’s otherwise dismal 2002 campaign, was a rally in Gatundu in 2002, where the Eldoret North MP insisted that KANU would form the next government with or without the support of the Kikuyu. In saying so, he was perhaps alluding to the extra-constitutional strategies employed to prevent them from voting. This warning came amid “increasingly persistent allegations of intimidation, fraud and looting of state funds.”
In the current violence, voices are increasingly emerging that link Ruto directly to the violence in the Rift Valley. TIME magazine reports “In Eldoret, for example, some locals accused William Ruto, a leader of Odinga’s Orange Democratic Movement and a Kalenjin, of hate speech in the run-up to the vote. “He’s the main inciter,” said a man named Benjamin, who refused to give his last name for fear of punishment. “He said that if we are not going to win as ODM, we will not accept to stay with the Kikuyus. They will have to go.”
And this report by The Statesman sets out clearly that Ruto participated in pre-election agitation for violence. Interviews with the victims, as well as the perpetrators of violence, indicate that the violence in the Rift Valley, was well organized in advance by Kalenjin elders and leaders. In fact, even before the first vote was cast, a total of 70 people had already died, many in opposition strongholds. This was clearly a harbinger of things to come.
In this interview by the BBC carried out in Eldoret, Kalenjin fighters who clearly regret killing Kikuyus, said that they were asked to kill Kikuyus by their leaders. Ruto’s response to these accusations is that he is an undeserved target of lies by the human rights commission, forcing the commission to defend itself: “We are not biased because our job is to hold the political class accountable no matter who they are,” Kiai said.
Ruto’s party, the ODM, has gone a step further to muddle the debate by electing to confuse the issue of ethnic cleansing with the sort of violence (excessive even) that might occur in any government in the course of maintaining law and order. In a pre-emptive move, the ODM took the government to the International Criminal Court in The Hague. The ODM charges centered around deaths that occurred in the process of restoring calm following the violent demonstrations inspired or called for by the ODM. These demonstrations caused loss of life in Kenya, and disrupted the economies of neighboring countries. In taking the government to the ICC, the Opposition party is trying to cast the government in the same mold as Charles Taylor and Slobodan Milesovich. However, it is unlikely that the charges will hold given that the Kenyan police have largely acted professionally under extreme provocation, with reports of police trucks being searched by mobs in illegal road blocks in the Nandi and Kipsigis districts. The deaths that occurred at the hands of the police mainly took place in the thick of street battles as the Kenyan police were trying to restore calm after opposition supporters engaged in violence, mayhem, disruption, looting, rape, and murder.
It is noteworthy that before violence broke out, the Kenyan police had no history of mass murder of opposition supporters, targeted or accidental. It is true that the Kenyan Police Service is by no means a posse of angelic shepherds. Just last year there were accusations that police killed members of Mungiki, but this controversial group is not part of the opposition. So far this year, close to 1000 people have been killed in the post election violence. Of this number, the police have killed less than 100 people. 90 or so of the victims were killed in the revenge attacks in Naivasha and Nakuru and it is likely that PNU supporters have killed many people in Nairobi. However, it goes without saying that the bulk of the victims have died at the hands of ODM’s supporters in their ‘spontaenous fury’. Unfortunately, William Ruto was amongst the very last national leaders to call for peace. So far, he has not gone to Kalenjin areas to confront the mobs and to ask for calm. In comparison, Uhuru Kenyatta, Cyrus Jirongo, Lewis Nguyai, Fred Gumo, Martha Karua, Linah Kilimo and others have gone to the streets to reason with mobs and their appeal has been heeded. Ruto and other ODM MPs insist that they cannot face their constituents before the resolution of the presidential vote dispute. In other words, they are using violence as a bargaining tool.
Ruto’s silence on violence is louder than those who shout “No Raila, No Peace,” betraying their resolve to install Raila in office by force, regardless of whether he won or not and regardless of the human cost or the consequences to the wider economy. This determined and stubborn silence, has now led to some attacks being waged in Ruto’s name. When raiders went to the home of Ken Matara, they burned his house because some members of his Kisii community people had attacked Ruto in South Mugirango constituency.
So why are men with histories of violence sitting at the negotiating table discussing peace? Is Kenya entrusting a leopard to look after the sheep?
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