Kenya: Ruto’s Suspension Not Political
Contrary to lies that a section of Rift Valley leaders are peddling, the recent suspension of Higher Education minister William Ruto is a clear indication of the government’s determination to rid the country of graft. Thanks to the new constitutional dispensation, the two principals are now re-energised and would not want to leave a tainted legacy. That is why it is insincere of Ruto’s allies to read political malice in his suspension.
Over the years, leaders who have been implicated in financial scandals for which their communities never got even a single cent have developed a penchant for retreating to their ethnic cocoons and hoodwinking the same communities into believing that they are being ‘targeted’ or ‘finished’. Yet, when such leaders decide to dip their fingers in the till, they never ask for permission from their communities. That is why I salute the few leaders from Rift Valley who told Ruto to carry his own cross since the charges were levelled against him as an individual and not to the Kalenjin community as a whole. When former Finance minister Amos Kimunya was implicated in the irregular sale of the then Grand Regency Hotel to Libyan investors, he went back to his Kipipiri constituency, telling the constituents that they were being ‘finished’. He went on to vow that he would rather die than resign over the scandal. However, he never survived a censure motion in Parliament and had to step aside.
The same scenario was recently replayed when the constitutional court dismissed Ruto’s application to have a corruption case against him halted. In his characteristic defiant style, he called a press conference to say he would not resign. But when President Kibaki suspended him from the Cabinet awaiting the outcome of the court case, Ruto and his henchmen instead went for Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s jugular, arguing that the PM engineered the suspension of Ruto in order to frustrate the latter’s 2012 presidential bid. What balderdash! For starters, Ruto’s case has been dragging in courts even before he made known his presidential ambitions.
It is unfortunate that a cabal of Rift Valley leaders continue to hang on to Ruto’s coat tails even when it is clear that the man is carrying excess baggage as Martha Karua, the former Justice minister once described him. For one, he has failed to have his name expunged from the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights report that linked him to the 2007/2008 post-election violence. And even though he survived a motion of censure in Parliament over the maize scandal, it will continue to haunt him for years to come. And now with the Ngong Forest land saga—it remains to be seen whether Ruto will survive these scandals and run for President in 2012.
Even so, communities at large need a lot of civic education on the accountability of leaders. They should be well informed that the leaders should not use them after committing various crimes. But perhaps such civic education should begin with the leaders themselves. Listening to the way Cooperative assistant minister Linah Kilimo argue, one wonders what kind of schools such leaders went to. Once a respected lady who rose from being a house help to one of Kenya’s few female cabinet ministers, Kilimo has reduced herself to a Ruto sycophant and does not miss an opportunity to abuse Raila.
When all is said and done, the war against graft is now taking root and those implicated should be ready to carry their own crosses. We would like to see those behind the Goldenberg and Anglo Leasing scandals charged in court. With the indefatigable PLO Lumumba at the helm of the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission, signs are that there will be no sacred cows. The arrest and subsequent arraignment in court of city mayor Geoffrey Majiwa clearly attests to this. The corrupt have been put on notice.