PRESS STATEMENT
RAILA ODINGA MUST BE HELD PERSONALLY RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY POLITICAL VIOLENCE IN KENYA DURING OR AFTER THE AUGUST 2017 GENERAL ELECTIONS
11th June 2017
There’s a play Kenyan university students are currently showing across the country called ‘Rira’. Rira is the Kinyarwanda word for ‘cry’. It also means the same thing in several other Bantu languages. The play is based on the happenings around the Rwanda Genocide. As we know Rwanda underwent politically instigated violence that was so intense that in 4 months close to 1,000,000 people died.
The play is acted by students from various public and private universities in Nairobi and drawn from a wide cross-section of Kenyan communities. It is a message to young people specifically and Kenyans generally not to allow themselves to be incited into violence by politicians; with the Rwandan genocide as a lesson. The theme of the play is #IncitePeace in #Elections2017. The play has been written by a medical student at University of Nairobi, who was directly affected by the 2007 PEV.
The genocide in Rwanda did not just happen. It was caused by careless ethnic vitriol and political utterances by the then Rwandan leadership. It was caused by the inability of other Rwandans to aggressively challenge these utterances and statements in time. And it was caused by the inaction of Rwandan legal institutions. The result was 1,000,000 of their citizens died and the entire economy of the country has had to be rebuilt from scratch.
In 2007 but by the Grace of God and lessons from Rwanda Kenya would have gone the Rwanda way. However despite this over 1,000 Kenyans died and the country lost billions from its economy. The causes were the same. Careless ethnic vitriol and political utterances. The inability of other Kenyans to aggressively challenge these utterances. And inaction by Kenyan legal institutions at the time.
This year Kenya heads into another general election. Due to the lessons learnt after the 2007 election violence we promulgated a new constitution that deals with all the issues that led to the 2007 situation. The main thing as regards political violence is the determinations we made on how elections are conducted and election-related disputes solved.
We have the Independent Elections and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) as the only institution that can announce elections. We have the Judiciary as the only institution that can solve election disputes. Both institutions have the constitutional protection to deliver their mandate. The Supreme Court was set up specifically to determine disputes at presidential election level.
However we are now facing the real possibility of retrogressing to exactly where we were before 2007; or where Rwanda was before April 1994. Raila Odinga – the main opposition presidential candidate - has been leading a political formation that has spent the last four years making political statements laced with ethnic vitriol. He has also decided that he will not accept IEBC results if they do not agree with the ones from his own private tallying centre, neither will he take an election dispute to the Judiciary. On more than one occasion the statement ‘Kenya will burn’ has been used.
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Raila has positioned himself to be the sole determinant of whether the August elections are free and fair, and to determine how to any electoral dispute that might arise with his election. We know that means political violence. Raila most probably believes he can direct that violence to redress his grievances. However Rwanda – and Kenya in 2007 – shows that when political violence starts no one is in control of how and where it goes. What we know for sure is that in its wake will be death and destruction of unimaginable levels.
Raila must be challenged. Raila must be stopped. Kenyans from all walks of life, local and international non-governmental organizations, and the international political community at large must tell Raila Odinga that Kenya is a country of laws; and that he must align his political ambitions to Kenya’s laws or face prosecution at every level locally and abroad.
At fundamental level Raila Odinga must also be held personally responsible for any death, loss or destruction that will incur in Kenya this year from political violence. He must also be prosecuted immediately, for inciting his followers down a path of violence and destruction. If the Director of Public Prosecution cannot initiate such a case against him Kenyans must unite to privately prosecute him.
