(Mwongela Mbiti is an advocate of the High Court of Kenya and a Human Rights Activist)
Ethnic dominance and resulting ethnic chauvinism demonstrated through historical land injustices can be said to have been the biggest contributor to the 2007/08 post-election violence.
The Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC) was formed as a singular transitional justice mechanism to address the causes and effects of historical injustices and gross violations of human rights and contribute towards national unity, reconciliation, and healing. The implementation of this report championed by opposition leader Raila Odinga was shelved by the Jubilee government after capturing power in 2013 effectively sweeping the issues raised and the recommendations aimed at resolving historical injustices under the carpet.
This, however, did not come as a surprise as Uhuru Kenyatta, then of The National Alliance (TNA) and William Ruto of United Republican Party (URP) who were facing charges of crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court (ICC) had come together to heal the wounds of 2007/08 Post Election Violence (PEV). This union effectively mutated into a political movement under the Jubilee banner that won the 2013 general election with Uhuru Kenyatta as the President and William Ruto as his Deputy. This political arrangement was intended to achieve two things; peaceful co-existence between the Kikuyu and the Kalenjin communities living in Rift Valley and political power with a promise that never again shall the country shed blood because of politics.
As ‘UhuRuto’ took over, the historic rivalry between the Kikuyu and Luo communities dating back to pre-colonial days was rekindled with gloves off in 2013 and 2017 elections, there were ethnic confrontation and government responded with state security agencies committing atrocities seemingly targeting the areas with dominant Luo population. At this point, calls for secession were getting louder and the scary conversation to divide the country into two propagated by the controversial NASA strategist Dr David Ndii and the larger western leaders had found its way to the mainstream media. It’s, however, the mock swearing of NASA leader as the ‘Peoples’ President’ that showed Kenya was deeply and evenly divided between Uhuru Kenyatta, the president, and his longtime political rival Raila Odinga. Mr Odinga’s supporters continued the calls for secession from the country if the coalition’s main demands — dialogue and a path to new elections were not met as Mr Kenyatta’s supporters insisted that the opposition leader committed treason by staging his mock inauguration to undercut the legitimacy of the real one.
The country was at a standstill, it’s about who would blink first as the government continued harassment, arrests and detention of the political leaders involved in the planning and execution of the swearing in.
It was the March 9th 2018 handshake that paved way for the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) that drew a line under Kenya's bruising election and left many people bewildered consequently swinging open the starting gate for the 2022 presidential race. The objectives of the BBI is to evaluate the national challenges outlined in the Joint Communiqué of 'Building Bridges to a New Kenyan Nation and make practical recommendations and reform proposals that will build lasting unity.
The political truce between President Kenyatta and Raila Odinga and the pre-2013 Uhuruto political pact has one significant similarity; intended to achieve a cessation of hostilities. The pre-2013 pact built bridges between the President’s Kikuyu community and Ruto’s Kalenjin community to prevent further ethnic violence in Rift Valley as witnessed in 2007/8 PEV to the exclusion of all others whereas, the handshake sought to bring the rest of Kenya to the table and more so the larger western region that for a long time has felt excluded and was the subject of secession attempts.
The president in the present case runs the risk of building the bridges across river Jordan to appease the Luo/Luyha nation and burning bridges to Kalenjin community that propelled him to power. The Kalenjin council of elders recently expressed fear of a repeat of 2007/08 post-election violence should the Kikuyu community renege on its promise to support Ruto in 2022. The apparent threat to violence coming from the Kalenjin community in the event central Kenya doesn’t support Ruto in 2022 is as real as the threat to secede by the west and Luo nation.
The Kikuyu historical political debt dating back to pre-independence days can only be paid in 2022 or never. On the other hand, the Uhuruto political debt arising from the 2013 political agreement that saw TNA and URP that morphed to the ruling Jubilee party can only be paid in 2022 as the son of Kalenjin is now closer to the top seat than never before.
In this case, the possible repercussions for failure to honour this promise as political undertones are already speculating are ethnic violence in Rift Valley. It’s, therefore, apparent that 2022 will be a season of collecting political debts with President Kenyatta and his Kikuyu community being on the receiving end.