By MAKAU MUTUA
Posted Saturday, April 14 2012 at 17:53
Posted Saturday, April 14 2012 at 17:53
IN SUMMARY
- If true, the successful execution of such a plot could send the country into irreversible paroxysms
Methinks ODM chief whip Jakoyo Midiwo is usually an alarmist. He’s fond of dropping unsubstantiated bombshells. That’s why I don’t know what to make of his eye-popping claim that “intriguers” are out to assassinate PM Raila Odinga.
Foreign minister Sam Ongeri has vehemently denied being one of the plotters. Does Mr Midiwo have loose lips, or should we take him seriously this time? If he isn’t just being a loudmouth, what does he really know?
Let me tell you something. If true, the successful execution of such a plot could send the country into irreversible paroxysms. But – and I feel confident saying this – no one is retarded enough to make a real attempt on Mr Odinga’s life.
Political murder
But suppose – just suppose – that Mr Midiwo knows what he’s talking about. After all, we have a history of political murders. There are three clear high profile cases. None has ever been solved.
The first was that of the iconic Tom Mboya who was gunned down on July 5, 1969 as he exited a pharmacy in Nairobi. I still remember trembling with anger and disgust as a boy when I heard the announcement of the killing.
The cosmopolitan minister for Economic Planning and Development was widely expected to succeed Kenya’s founding President, Mzee Jomo Kenyatta.
A Nahashon Isaac Njenga Njoroge, the presumed shooter, was convicted and hanged. But he pointedly asked, “why don’t you go after the big men?”
The second was the grisly killing of JM Kariuki, the charismatic MP for Nyandarua North. The ex-Mau Mau fighter fell afoul of the government when he declared that “Kenya has become a nation of 10 millionaires and 10 million beggars”.
He was last seen alive on March 2, 1975 leaving the Hilton Hotel in Nairobi in the company of senior police officers.
Several days later, the “people’s champion’s” bullet-riddled body was found by a Maasai herdsman in a thicket at Ngong Hills.
Every attempt to get to the bottom of the killing has been thwarted. There’s no doubt Mr Kariuki was killed for championing the cause of the poor.
The last high voltage political killing was that of the minister for Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation, Dr Robert Ouko, on February 13, 1990.
Mr Ouko reportedly fell out with former senior government officials after a controversial trip to Washington.
Shoot-to-kill
During that trip to Washington, I met with Dr Ouko to discuss the government’s “shoot-to-kill” policy.
Upon his return to Kenya, his badly charred body was found by a herdsman at the foot of Got Alila Hill near his Koru farm.
There have, of course, been many other serious political murders.
But these are the most prominent. The key is that none – not a single one – has ever been solved. Some of the killers are probably still alive.
But the murders of these three – Mboya, Kariuki, and Ouko – continue to weigh on the nation’s conscience.
We will never truly confront the past until and unless we uncover – and hold accountable – their murderers.
For now, one might be tempted to conclude that political murder pays in Kenya.
The lesson is this – nothing happens to you when you kill your political opponents.
What’s instructive is that political killings have been associated with power struggles and political succession at State House.
Which brings me to the allegedly nefarious plot to eliminate Prime Minister Odinga. We are looking at perhaps the most pivotal struggle for political power in Kenya’s history.
Two of the leading presidential contenders – Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and Eldoret North MP William Ruto – are desperately trying to escape the vice-like claws of the International Criminal Court.
I am almost certain they will be eliminated from the presidential contest because of the charges of crimes against humanity at the ICC.
This would leave the field to a formidable Mr Odinga, Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka, the intriguing Gichugu MP Martha Karua, the dour Internal Security minister, Prof George Saitoti, ODM Local Government minister Musalia Mudavadi, and Gatanga MP Peter Kenneth.
Even with Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto in the race, the smart money would have to be on Mr Odinga. But Mr Odinga easily jogs to State House without breaking a sweat if the two are knocked out.
If – and this is very plausible – Mr Odinga is the odds-on favourite to win it all, it stands to reason that someone may want to do him harm.
This is the only logic that would give Mr Midiwo’s otherwise outlandish claim legs.
This is the only logic that would give Mr Midiwo’s otherwise outlandish claim legs.
Someone may have figured out that the only way to stop Mr Odinga is to physically get rid of him.
But an attempt on Mr Odinga’s life could awaken terrible demons. We can’t take the killing of another key leader of Luo extraction.
Pull the trigger
That’s why I believe – even if Mr Midiwo has smoked out a true plot – no one has the guts to pull the trigger. Simply put, no one will dare kill Mr Odinga. Everyone knows that such a cataclysmic act would send Kenya to hell in a hand basket.
The country is already sitting on an ethnic volcano because of the politicisation by the Ocampo Four of their cases.
Killing Mr Odinga is a sure match that would burn Kenya down.
No one wants that – unless they want to turn Kenya into another Somalia, or the DRC.
Makau Mutua is Dean and SUNY Distinguished Professor at SUNY Buffalo Law School and Chair of the KHRC.
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