Countrymen,

The Waki Report is still emanating a lot of heat as well as confusion.

You are still witnessing leaders go back and forth on their stand about the implementation of the Report.

Hon. Bill Ruto’s position is a double edged sword. It may be good for him to publicly declare that he supports the full implementation of the recommendations in the Report. That is Bill speaking but you do not know how his people are going to take this.

The pressure from the donors is heavy and the choices for our leaders sparse. The donors are funding the bloated government and if they freeze their financing we will see the maize flour hit 200 Ksh. Making the current crazy 120 Ksh. mere child play. Wanjiku will have to take the whole burden of financing the bloated government. Spoiling any chances for a re-election of the same lot and giving currency to a political THIRD FORCE.

The lengthy debate over the Report has given all those who may have been implicated enough time to strategize and hide their daggers behind the cloak. ‘Cloak and dagger’ game. The game of the El Matadore’

We are running the risk of raising Ruto to a cult figure if we do not play this right.

He may end up with far too many sympathizers and that can turn out to be a problem in itself knowing Bill Ruto’s incendiary nature.

The TRUTH is that Ruto was not at every town and market and village dishing out money and inciting youth to violence, that is not true and it is not fair to him. And more so, the fact that he was installed as a Kalenjin Elder does not automatically make him a de facto warlord; we are mixing issues here.

True, atrocities were committed but the way the Report is implicating some of the leaders is totally out of step.

The TRUTH is this:

The violence at the grassroots was triggered by the way a certain community celebrated and gloated over those who felt that victory had been stolen from them.

A case in point:

In Vihiga for example, the matter was triggered by women traders and shopkeepers who went ululating and shouting words to the effect:

‘We told you so!! You cannot!!”

One of the businessmen was at one of the local pubs and he went shouting;

“Ndiyo hiyo! Tuliwaambia nini!!”

Someone just rose up and went over to him and slapped him hard across the face sending him reeling to the floor. He quickly scrambled to his feet dazed and fled the scene. Nobody talked, nobody laughed, nobody breathed. Everyone just paid their bills and went home hands tucked in the pockets and their eyes glistening. The bar man switched off the TV and murmured a few ‘oh bwana pole’ but nobody was listening. These are the untold stories we would like to hear at a TRC (Truth and Reconciliation Commission).

We wronged each other and the peace loving nature and serenity of the locals was stretched beyond ordinary limits. And the shouting matches called for the youth to step in to protect the dignity of their sisters and mothers and that is how things deteriorated. I did not see a leader here inciting anybody. It was a purely spontaneous event. Inasmuch as we may want to blame somebody.

The same can be said of the Kitale area and most of the other areas where matters went out of hand but we can mention where we have corroborative evidence.

Just like the African-Americans were prepared for an Obama win: the courtesy, the decorum and all, nobody did this for Kenyans and we know that as Soul brothers and sisters we are highly emotional people by nature. So, next time let this factored into the election process.

Instead of having 20+ pot bellied Commissioners at the Electoral Commission of Kenya watching television and listening to the radio, let these resources be put to good use like educating the electorate.

The Waki Report is using a non-existent gold standard for Africa to evaluate a highly volatile situation.

However, as Kenyans we have our own local systems that can buy time, and time heals many ills:

The cabinet will authorize the establishing of a Committee to look into the work of the Waki Committee and possibly make recommendations for establishing of a Committee to establish a Public Commission of Inquiry to probe those implicated with a view of ascertaining whether those mentioned adversely are guilty or can be subjected to a court process. By the time we come to the end of it all, it will be two years down the road and we will have forgotten where we started from, why we started the process and as usual being Kenyans we will also have lost interest no matter how important it may have been.

In doing this we will be building a foundation for insurmountable rifts and mistrust.

This is part of the reason that in the very initial phases a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). It is about the only option we have left if we ever hope to have a country left when this is all over.

In my personal opinion it is what transpired on KBC national television, KBC radio and the live transmissions of the events at KICC that triggered the bloodbath. The challenge is that it is much more difficult to draw a Report based on those events. It is politically and technically correct to follow the standard as is always the case and implicate politicians who have a following and need to be neutralized. That is the typical African Standard.

Just like we believe down in the village, nobody dies of natural causes. Someone must have done something to lead to the death. In the village people don’t just die; people are killed; so goes our belief system.

Violence cannot be spontaneous; someone paid someone to do something? WRONG!

And please do not get me wrong, am not for impunity – am for the TRUTH and not FITINA.

Sande
HR Activist
VIHIGA

– – –
Date: Mon, 24 Nov 2008 08:39:43 -0800 [11/24/2008 10:39:43 AM CST]
From: Sande
Subject: WAKI REPORT DILEMMA