Uhuru, Ruto alliance ruffles political feathers

By Oscar Obonyo
The Hague-bound Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and Eldoret North MP William Ruto have turned their countrywide tours into premature campaigns for presidential election.
While many may have expected the two, who could face serious criminal charges on crimes against humanity, to lie low and brood over their cases, Uhuru and Ruto have turned their plight into a political opportunity.
What started as a mild event of interdenominational prayers for The Hague-bound suspects last month in Kapsabet town has since evolved into charged rallies, with heavy political and tribal undercurrents.
With four days before their appearance at the International Criminal Court, the first phase of the rallies climaxes in Nakuru today - in what is billed the "mother of all rallies".
Choosing to concentrate their rallies in their political strongholds of central Kenya and parts of Rift Valley, they have attracted huge crowds that have sent the message they are a political force to reckon with.
But Uhuru and Ruto’s heightened political activities have attracted the ire of the civil society. The Executive Director of International Commission of Jurists, Kenya-Chapter, George Kegoro questions why the Government has allowed the two to politicise the ICC process by daily poisoning the masses with loaded "tribal agenda."
Human rights lawyer, Harun Ndubi says Uhuru and Ruto belong in jail as National Cohesion and Integration Commission Chairman, Mzalendo Kibunjia, is "supposed to have arrested them long ago".
"They are engaged in nothing but ethnic mobilisation. This is dangerous, considering our recent experience," warns Ndubi.
The lawyer, who is also director of Haki Focus say, the series of rallies meant to achieve two main goals – to politicise and discredit the ICC process and to undermine Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s presidential bid through propaganda and mudslinging.
"They are trying every way possible to politicise the process, including infantile ploys such as dragging in US President, Barack Obama and ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo, with claims that what is happening is a scheme of the three ‘O’ (including Odinga’s) to politically fix The Hague suspects," regrets Ndubi.
Discredit Raila
Locally, claims the lawyer, Uhuru and Ruto hope to discredit Raila to ensure their tribes – the Kalenjin and the Kikuyu – shun him politically. So far, in the run-up to the appointment at The Hague, Uhuru and Ruto have addressed joint rallies in their Kiambu, Thika and Bomet backyards, where they have attracted huge crowds. This is not the end, but it makes for a strategic start of the joint rallies.
Director of communications in the office of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Munyori Buku, dismissed the Uhuru-Ruto criticisms as cowardly acts of political rivals who were panicking.
"Don’t you find these reactions peculiar? Why is it only an issue when Uhuru and Ruto politick as they are destined to do, being politicians? When others politick over any other matter, why is it never a big issue?" Buku asked.
Meanwhile, more players have since joined the Uhuru-Ruto bandwagon, including scores of legislators mainly from central Kenya and Rift Valley. The latest notable names include Transport minister, Ali Chirau Mwakwere, and former Rarieda MP and Foreign Affairs minister, Raphael Tuju.
Uhuru and Ruto have left no doubt that "this thing" is politics as usual. Their allies also confess the ICC factor has propelled them into forging a new political outfit, which they plan to unveil soon.
But other suspects, including fellow politician and former Industrialisation minister and ODM chairman, Henry Kosgey, Head of Civil Service Francis Muthaura, former Police Commissioner Hussein Ali and radio journalist Joshua arap Sang, have kept a relatively low profile.
Uhuru and Ruto’s decision to play politics with the ICC is bold, but whether it is self-destructing is yet to be seen.