Kenya should now focus on compensating PEV victims

William Ruto is now a free man. The International Criminal Court (ICC) indicted six Kenyans on charges of crimes against humanity but Ruto was the centrepiece, the man of the moment. The Prosecutor showcased him as the master planner and architect of the 2007 post-election violence, the penultimate warlord. He availed himself in court in person early, and demonstrated a stubborn commitment to the court process until the end. When the case commenced, he told the court that accusations levelled against him were just as fictitious as the Hollywood movies.

In November last year, I wrote in this column that Ruto was “a victim of a morbid conspiracy by a cabal of power hungry characters around the former President Mwai Kibaki who abused office to fix him.” I had argued that the “indefatigable Ruto, with immense organisational skills and great oratorical prowess, threw in everything he had to dislodge the incumbent” and hence ran afoul of the system. I was on the campaign trail with him in 2007 and knew there was no systematic or planned violence; it was spontaneous eruption after PNU stole our trophy!