Major General (Retired) Hussein Ali, the Postmaster-General, and former Commissioner of Police, who served during the pogroms of 2007 and 2007 was once asked if he would act differently faced with the chaos of the post-2007 election violence and he answered that he would not. He did so so under oath, believing that he was acting as a Police Commissioner should and he had no apologies to make. Now he seeks to ask the ICC to hear him on the small matter of summonses from the Court asking that he be heard before the summons issues on the evidence collected against him so that he gets the opportunity to make his case against the issuance of the summons. The Postmaster-General has taken a less contentious route to challenging the position of the ICC Prosecutor against him, ensuring that he plays by the rules without bringing disrepute to his name or engaging in political gamesmanship with the ICC. Whether we agree with his position or not, Gen. Ali demonstrates that while the matters against him are grave, he will act within the law to ensure that his name is cleared.
William Ruto has not even tried to play fair with the Court. His attempts to prevent the issuance of the summons against him betray a lack of appreciation of the gravity of the charges made against him, equating the ICC process to a political witch-hunt by his political enemies. He refuses to acknowledge that while he may have been treated shabbily by the Office of the Prosecutor, the Prosecutor is not motivated by political or other considerations. The contrast between the approaches of the two men is stark and it raises the question of what it means to be a leader in Kenya. Gen. Ali enjoys enormous respect from the people of Kenya; he is not quite a divisive figure as the MP for Eldoret North. Perhaps it is his military experience, especially his leadership of the various units of the military and the Kenya Police, that continues to ensure that Kenyans remain ambivalent about the ICC's case against him. I would wager that the people of Kenya will continue to give the good general the benefit of the doubt until the case against him is concluded. I would wager further that the Head of the Public Service, while he may be seen as a player in the political arena, may enjoy the same goodwill that Gen. Ali enjoys and Kenyans will also give him the benefit of the doubt until his case too, is concluded.
Of the politicians, only Mr. Ruto enjoys a lower profile than anyone else regarding the pogroms of 2007-2008 and it was all his doing. While Mr. Ruto, Mr. Kosgey and Mr. Kenyatta may be in the same boat politically, it seems that the actions of Mr. Ruto have cast greater doubt over his innocence that over that of the other two. He began the process of raising such doubt when he unilaterally picked a fight with the Office of the Prosecutor when the matter was eventually taken up by the ICC. He compounded the error by making a unilateral decision to fly out to The Hague to confront the ICC Prosecutor and by filing an application to prevent the Prosecutor from applying for summonses to issue against him. All the while he engaged in a high-risk political strategy to cobble together what is billed as the KKK Alliance against the Prime Minister, insinuating his hand in the manner in which the ICC proposed to deal with him. M. Kenyatta and Kalonzo Musyoka, the Vice-President, may not be friends of the PM, no one doubts that the engine behind the KKK machinations is the former Higher Education Minister. Mr. Ruto is determined to link the goings on in The Hague to the 2012 elections and he is playing this script fr all it is worth in the hopes that even if he is indeed indicted and tried at The Hague, and he is unable to contest the elections, he will at least derail the PM's ambitions for high office. Mr. Ruto, perhaps with the blessings of the President himself, seems to have maneuvered Mr. Musyoka to a foolhardy attempt to not only derail trial at The Hague, but to repeal the International Crimes Act and to pull Kenya out of the Rome Statute with the support of the members of the African Union. In all these maneuvers is the spectre of the victory of Raila Odinga in 2012 which neither of the parties to the KKK Alliance is willing to countenance.
The 2012 elections, especially the presidential elections, will not be played according to the rules that have been established since 1963, where ethnic arithmetic seems more important than the wishes of the electorate. With the repeal of Section 2A of the former Constitution, President Moi perfected the art of playing one ethnic community against the other, using positions in government as sweeteners for those who stayed by his side and political isolation for those who did not. He ensured that the people saw the positions as belonging to their 'communities' rather than as vehicles for nation-building or development. As a result, statements issued by political figures ensured Kenyans as seeing the positions as being awarded to them and not to the politicians. However, in 2012, it will not be possible for presidential candidates to make such divisive promises. The president in 2013 will not have a free hand to dish out government positions and jobs as political lollipops for supporting his candidacy. Hence the desire for the brains behind the KKK Alliance to 'rally their people' behind the alliance without consideration for the harm that will ensue from the lofty promises they are already making.
Mr. Ruto should learn from Gen. Ali on how to conduct oneself in public, especially when one's reputation is on the line. It is not enough to inveigle against your persecutors, you must do so using the tools that reinforce that you may be innocent of the charges. You must deliberate carefully before making any statement or taking any precipitate action. Even when you craft alliances to assist in your defence, they must reflect the broad outlines of civilised conduct among leaders and not be seen as a personal vendetta against the community or the reputation of your detractor. If you impute mala fide motives, you must back it up with proof. Most importantly, you must play by the rules, if only to demonstrate that you are willing to be judged by the same rules. Gen. Ali is a study of the calm deliberation that every leader must demonstrate when faced with challenges. Mr. Ruto is a reminder that in Kenya, that ideal is yet to be inculcated in our leadership. Whatever the outcome of their day before the ICC, Kenyans owe Gen. Ali gratitude for his statesmanlike behavior, and nothing but brickbats for Mr. Ruto for making it a point of reminding us that politicians should not and cannot be trusted.
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