The one real problem that could destroy Ruto’s desperate run for the presidency is that he has too many lunatics with him.
When someone like Mithika Linturi stands in a rally with Ruto and asks him and the Kalenjin community to eject non-Kalenjins from Rift Valley you expect Ruto to stand up and say that Kenya belongs to all those who live in the country and there are no ‘madoadoas’ in any community.
But Ruto can never do that. Maybe he believes in that hateful talk and thinking as long as it promotes his political interests.
”Watu wa UasinGishu msicheze na Kenya. Kile nawaomba ni kwamba madoadoa mliyonayo hapa muweze kuyaondoa!” the Meru senator charged, adding, ”Hatuwezi kuwa tunasimama na William tukiwa huko Mt Kenya na Meru halafu kuna wengine ambao hawasikii hawaungani na yeye.
You look at that picture with those yellow uniforms behind their mad man and the likes of Sudi wildly cheering it looks like Germany in 1933. We can’t afford it as a country.
Ruto and his friends will find that out in August 2022. Kenyans are not going to endorse fascism in their country. Not again.
Ruto’s biggest weakness in this election is that he has surrounded himself with some truly desperate characters like this Linturi fellow who is facing serious corruption charges.
Read: 530M Fraud: Why Senator Linturi was arrested on Wednesday
His life commitment right now is that Ruto wins and sets free all the thieves working with him. Kenya means nothing to these people.
This election is life and death for them as individual criminals.
Ruto wins the presidency, all those charges are dropped and Linturi and his friends are in cabinet and free to loot it all with cheers and kudos from the new boss.
Ruto loses the election and these thieves are at the airport heading to Dubai and broke like hell. May be they could just slide over to Uganda but you never know with Museveni.
DRC could help because there are a lot of bushes to hide in there safely or otherwise we don’t know.
The idea that some politicians can go out there promoting tribal violence publicly in front of other leaders including the presidential candidate is just so vile and wrong.
Now talking this kind of stuff in the very place where ethnic cleansing happened in 2007/8 Post Election Violence is beyond imagination.
Children and old women and men were burnt alive in a church in Kiambaa in a horrific display of human cruelty that Kenyans are determined to put behind them.
That place of infamy is just a few yards from the Eldoret Sports Club where these people met to threaten more.
But you are Linturi and you want the attention of the boss, nothing is off limits even asking for more Kiambaa roasting of human beings inside a church where they took refuge. This is just insanity.
And to use the word madoadoa which is exactly what people were calling those they were killing and chasing to leave their communities is to play with fire.
All it takes is some young group of people to start playing with that fire and attack another group and everything is up in smoke in a very short time.
When the mayhem happened in 2007/8 I was here in Toronto. I was watching it on TV and Kenya news and hoping this better end very fast. Then I saw arrows from one side of the head and out on the other side. I saw a woman with her kids lying in blood in Naivasha and I stopped watching anything to do with that horror show.
This guy comes all the way from Meru to tell people in Eldoret and elsewhere in Rift Valley to start fighting and killing each other depending on which candidate they support for the presidency.
Read: Eject ‘madoadoa’ opposing Ruto in the Rift Valley! Senator Linturi to Kalenjins
He should have stayed in Meru and do his ethnic cleansing in Meru. His message is actually an insult to the Kalenjin communities because he expects them to carry out his violent message. That is what he thinks about that community.
That is not who they are and they are not going to do what Linturi is asking them to do. People are not that stupid and everybody just wants a peaceful campaign time and elections.
William Ruto as a national leader who comes from the Kalenjin community and in whose rally and name the violent message was sent needs to talk to Linturi and speak out publicly about this madoadoa nonsensical and dangerous talk.
But I am sure Ruto wouldn’t do that. Politics to some of these people is more important than the lives of Kenyans.
Here they are at their madoadoa rally in Eldoret and they look very happy about that incitement. What a sick situation for the country. You are holding Madoadoa rallies in 2022.
Kenya is not going back to Madoadoa land and politics anymore. We have been there and we hate it very much.
It is sad to see all those leaders like Duale and others sitting behind this man as he yells his message asking for people to be ejected from their homes because of their politics.
UDA aspirants and leaders here are cheering this mad talk. What kind of a country do these people want to build if they win the elections? They want King Ruto or president Ruto.
If they continue with this violent talk they will not get their King nor their president and Kenya will be a much safer place for that. It is coming.
These politicians know that when the violence someone like Linturi is preaching starts and gets in full swing they are safe in their big homes with security so why would they care?
This is exactly why we need a change in our politics and why that handshake keeps looking better by the day.
People like Linturi are telling Kenyans to better stick to the politics of peace and handshake.
Kenyans get it. They understand where things stand today and they want to keep it that way.
Live and let live even when you lose elections it is not the end of the world.
How can that be so hard for some people to understand and appreciate?
Never again means Never again. That is our Kenya today and we are not giving it up for somebody to go to State House.
Looks like there is some kind of investigation going on but it could make things worse as politicians would start crying about “deep state” stopping them from preaching hatred.
And the reality strikes for Linturi, maybe too late but when will that reality strike for William Ruto who was at the Madoadoa hate speech event in Eldoret over the weekend?
Maybe never. That is fine. The nation will decide its leaders in the August 2022 General Elections.
Adongo Ogony is a Human Rights Activist and a Writer who lives in Toronto, Canada
