Sunday, November 14, 2010

Suspended minister’s game plan clear




By KWENDO OPANGA
Posted Saturday, November 13 2010 at 12:48

Finally, suspended Higher Education minister William Ruto found somebody else to blame for his myriad problems and especially his expected date with Mr Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Ruto has made a career of blaming Prime Minister Raila Odinga for any unfavourable thing that happens to him. But last week he picked on Mr Omar Hassan and the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) for blame.
Ruto accused Hassan of coaching and bribing witnesses to implicate him in the murder and plunder, madness and mayhem of late 2007 and early 2008 that we have come to call post-election violence. Of course, Ruto did not leave Raila out of the picture completely.
He said the KNCHR was acting at the behest of politicians he did not name. That is Ruto’s coded phrase for Raila. Ruto’s attack on Hassan was, however, not surprising.
When Ruto left for The Hague the other week, his shoot-from-the-hip political sidekicks kicked in to tell the world that witnesses had confessed to lying to the KNCHR about their hero.
What was surprising but ultimately revealing was the aggressive and combative manner in which Ruto took on Hassan. It was surprising because Ruto has gone to court to have his name expunged from the KNCHR report that implicates him in the post-election violence.
Second, Ruto appeared to pick a fight with KNCHR, and particularly Hassan, at a time when he was also busy telling the world that the meetings he had at The Hague to clear the air about his role in the post-election mayhem had been successful.
This attack on Hassan and KNCHR was revealing because Ruto, fresh from The Hague, set out to discredit the commission. If Ruto’s 30-hour long presentation to Ocampo’s team had been the success he said it was, there was no need for him to hit out at Hassan.
Second, the attack on Hassan was meant to prepare the way for the entry into the fray of the two men alleged to have framed him. Among other things, they made the now familiar allegation that they had been coached to tie Ruto to the post-election violence.
Third, their entry into the fray raised the selfsame issue Ruto is accusing Hassan of: Were they coached to frame Hassan in particular and KNCHR in general? And, is it a coincidence that they “came out” at the same time as Ruto returned from The Hague?
Fourth, Hassan and KNCHR chair Florence Jaoko have not been in good terms. It is believed at KNCHR that Hassan is allied to those forces against Jaoko’s leadership. Ruto’s move had the potential of pitting Jaoko against Hassan and splitting the commission down the middle.
Jaoko and Hassan, however, closed ranks. They presented a united front at their news conference in which they saw KNCHR as the one under attack and not Hassan. But their denial that witnesses had been coached provided Ruto with the opportunity to unveil those he claims framed him.
But the two have a problem. They said they lied to KNCHR and that opens them up to charges of perjury. They, however, appear persuaded that it is far much better to face charges of perjuring themselves if it will help expose KNCHR as a suspicious witness against Ruto.
Fifth, lawyers talk of creating reasonable doubt about the evidence adduced or in the minds of the court. This would appear to be what Ruto & Co went to do in The Hague regarding the KNCHR report and the findings of Mr Justice Philip Waki’s commission.
Public indictment
Last, Ruto & Co followed this up with a public indictment of Hassan and the KNCHR. Will Waki be next? That remains to be seen, but Ruto’s game plan is clear. Firstly, go to The Hague and package your trip to the public as a heroic and manly move.
Secondly, publicly, loudly and angrily humiliate Hassan as a bribe-giver and create suspicion and doubt about the KNCHR’s credibility as a witness. Thirdly, go to the police to record a statement about the bribery and coaching claims.
Lastly, all along create the impression that it is your political enemies that are creating all the trouble for you locally and overseas because they are desperate to derail your march to State House in 2012.
They say in Kinshasa that rumour is on the streets and justice is in the courts. It matters not whether Ruto is the accuser or accused in the courts of law, he will still wage war in the courts of public opinion.
Kwendo Opanga is a media consultant diplospeak@yahoo.com

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