Is Soy Criminality a Foretaste of a Brewing PEV?

 Recent attacks on Azimio la Umoja Presidential candidate, former Prime Minister Raila Odinga in Soy constituency speak volume on the history and trajectory of Kenya’s coming elections if stern steps are not taken to address and arrest this criminality. On 1^st April 2022, Odinga’s entourage was attacked when he went to Soy to attend the burial of the late Jackson Kibor at Samitui farm. Hired hoodlums whose intention, as per Prof. Makua Mutua, spokesperson for Odinga’s Presidential Secretariat was akin to an attempt on his life since it’d have resulted in grievous harm to him and members of his entourage; and Kenya's polity. Soon after this sacrilege, Deputy President William Ruto––––whose allies, Uasin Gishu county governor Jackson Mandago and Soy MP, Caleb Kostany were accused of being behind this criminality­­­­––––apologized to Odinga!

 Many were perturbed and outraged. Why all this at a time Kenya’s crying for peace? Why have such criminals and their felonious bankrollers easily forgotten that Kenya needs peace as it braces itself for the coming general elections? What’s behind this augury that every Kenyan and peace lover need to condemn? Is there politics in the play? Why now? Who are behind this carnage and what are they intending to achieve and why? What’d Kenya do as a nation? For those who care about and love Kenya and those who remember how the Post-Election Violence (PEV–––2007/08) pushed Kenya to the precipice of apocalypse will fully concur with me. The unfortunate criminality of Soy must be comprehended and taken as a wakeup call for yet another big shocker. Something ominous is in the making and those behind it are easy to unmask shall the authorities act swiftly. For, even the PEV didn’t just explode like a bomb. It was preparedly executed long before it happened save that Kenyans didn’t read the signs of the time. While at that time around it was alleged that the government’s part and parcel of the entire thing, this time around, the government isn’t. Thus, it’s what it takes to take it on timely and quickly shall Kenya expect the coming elections not to replicate the same psychosis.

            We all are aware that there’s been bad blood and hubbubs between and among leading contenders for the presidency. Currently, Ruto, the staunch opponent of the handshake and Odinga, the party to the handshake that stabilised Kenya, are the major contenders whose perverse fans and followers––––if aren’t well guided and tamed–––pose the danger of replicating the said PEV, which claimed many innocent lives and destroyed properties worth billions––––if we’re to go with what’s ongoing in Kenya vis-à-vis Soy carnage. Again, what’d we do as Kenyans and Kenya’s friends without forgetting the international community? Should we bury our heads in the sands and become the abettors to this avoidable crime? Should we keep mum as if the danger Soy carnage poses is none of our business or say something even for the record?

            Essentially, politics of chaos, toxic ethnopolitics and the greed for power that some of competitors have displayed must apprise, caution and lead us to taking decisive and stern actions/measures as a nation and as a people. Who’s to address and arrest this looming danger in the first place? Kenyans are. Neighbours are. The world is. Thus, nobody’d pretend that things are normal while the danger posed is ginormous so to speak. The East African Community (EAC) to which Kenya is a member should forcefully step in forthwith.

Have Kenyans and world easily forgotten the conundrum, imbroglio, and sufferings PEV occasioned to many innocuous Kenyans, who, as of now, are still languishing and suffering  in the IDP camps? Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. The saying goes. What else are we waiting as the reminder of the PEV wherein toxic ethnicity, toxic politics of ‘it is our turn to eat’ and the dangers they pose? He who’s bitten twice in the same hole must blame nobody except oneself. This can’t be Kenya that I know and aspire to see. This isn’t Kenya at all. Nunca mais. Never. Never again. Kenya’s preciously and pricelessly more important than egoïstic politicians, their idiotic buffs and avaricious and blinkered missions.

            We need not to be cuckolded by those who, through their megamouths, preach peace during the day and war at night. We know them by faces, names and whatnots. Let’s refuse to be turned into political guinea pigs for our perils. Prevention’s better and more important than cure. From where I sit, what’s in the offing’s more perilous than anybody can imagine, especially with the politics of chaos, desperation and opportunism some of Kenya politicians have shamelessly displayed. There’s a famous Latin saying that si vis pacem, para bellum viz. if you want peace, prepare for war. Again, what’s the type of this war? In this matter and for this matter, this war must be nonaggressive in that the authorities must thwart all those behind the carnage before the bigger dangers occur. Educate the people about the dangers toxic ethnicity poses. Educate them about the role they can play either in assuaging or exacerbating the dangers. The authorities need to keep tabs on all who are now preaching hatred, made-up victimhood and mendacities. For example, currently, there are two narratives to this non-existing dynasties-and-hustler-nation gambit. If you critically examine the two, one of them is a ludicrous goof. How, for example, a multibillionaire whose riches are suspicious can lead the ‘hustler’ nation as if he’s one? How can such a dupe that’s openly ringing the knell of death––––not to mention, he’s brutally duping, mugging and milking those he’s taking for a ride––––lead them to elsewhere than the abattoir? Instead of believing his hoo-hahs and buying into his set-up, please, ask him about how he legally made those millions of dosh he’s now dishing out like nobody’s business.

            Kenyans deserve better. No more ethnic cleansing. FYI, the victims of PEV have never been adequately and deservedly attended to. They’re still living in squalor not to mention imminent sufferings.  

            In sum, what dreadfully transpired in Soy recently must act as a wake-up call that needs to be examine critically based on the history of the PEV before it sinks Kenya to the precipice needlessly. It is time for Kenyans to have conversations about answerability and amity. It is time for them to doubt and interrogate every narrative that power seekers are giving them. Instead of banking on cynicism and parochialism that revolve around toxic ethnicity and toxic politics, Kenyans need to start revisiting all causes of the past PEV before it revisits them harshly and unpreparedly once again. He/she who’s eyes must see and with ears must hark. Let’s say solidly together as we beat swords into ploughshares. Nunca mais. Never. Never again.

Source: African Executive Magazine today.