Saturday, February 18, 2012

Prayer Meetings A Recipe For Chaos



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The peace/prayer meetings organized by Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, Eldoret North MP William Ruto and Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka are anything but peace and prayer rallies. These rallies have turned out to be forums designed to incite and extol tribal hatred and animosity. Whether or not the Ocampo Four require prayers is debatable considering as they have never held prayer rallies for the victims of PEV. Utterances by politicians during these rallies not only contravene our law but also the conditions set by the ICC conditions under which the Ocampo Four are walking free.
We all know how we landed at ICC. Now Justice Minister Mutula Kilonzo has become the latest target in the rallies with Uhuru and Ruto supporters making statements laced with hate speech and incitement. In what appears to be a well rehearsed script, nearly all the speakers have stated that should the duo be barred from vying for presidency, then Kenya will not hold elections.
Sadly, the speakers at these rallies have made incendiary statements and insinuated over and over again that it is not Ruto and Uhuru who are on trial but their respective communities which they urge to defeat the ICC process which is—according to their misleading and false narrative— the end product of NGOs working with the Prime Minister through the international community.
Kenyans must not allow these politicians to once again put the country on the warpath. The President must come clean on his stand regarding this apparent insinuation that he is an accomplice to this raising of tribal animosity and hate by two individuals pitting their respective communities against the rest of the country.
Mzalendo Kibunjia and the NCIC must address this very flagrant violation of the law in order to prevent a recurrence of PEV. The High Court should expeditiously dispose off the question of eligibility of the two—Uhuru and Ruto– to run for elective office. The delay is giving the duo more time to continue on the dangerous path they have taken which threatens the relative to peace and harmony in the country. The media should expose the lies that are being spewed at these rallies—particularly the untruth that the Prime Minister is responsible for the cases at the.
Uhuru and Ruto should step back for a moment and answer the question— is stopping Raila from becoming president worth shedding the blood, let alone the death of a single person? Is their ambition to take the presidency one they are willing to pursue regardless of how their quest further divides the country? Do the people of Kenya beyond their respective tribes mean anything to them or are they so obsessed with their ambition that they are willing to destroy the country in their quest to get into State House? What good will their presidency be if at the end of it all is a country in flames and chaos These are questions Uhuru, Ruto and those cheering them on must ask themselves, answer and act accordingly.
Regardless of whether or not they do so, the president owes the nation handing over to the next president, a presidency under a climate that at least demonstrates that all the blood that was shed in 2007-2008; all the property that was stolen, taken over or burnt in 2007-2008, all the displacement of people from their homes that occurred in 2007-2008, all the rapes that occurred in the same period and the deaths that topped it was nothing even a fraction of our country should ever see again; not under his watch and not ever.
His failure to do so would not only be an unbelievable letdown of Kenyans and complete evisceration of goodwill they have given him, even notwithstanding what happened in the 2007 elections and its aftermath, it will seal his legacy in a manner no one wishes to be remembered in history. Some say Kibaki doesn’t care about his legacy, others including me beg to differ and hope they are not wrong for in the end, what Kibaki does will impact how the next elections are conducted and concluded. The alternative is for the people themselves to override him and anyone else who still believes they hold sway over public anger and resentment for being taken for granted and abused at will.
David Kigochi is national convener, Central for United Kenya (CUK) forum and Farmers Party Leader.

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