Of 'murder plot' and why Ruto must always speak with caution

President William Ruto names his Cabinet at State House, Nairobi, on September 27, 2022. [Edward Kiplimo, Standard] The two greatest discoveries by man to date remain government and democracy. Government for how it helped mankind evolve from a state of brutish and nasty disorder to a society of civilisation. Democracy for giving all men (sic) and women a voice in dictating the affairs of their polity. That is why whoever ends up as the winner in a democratic contest always has the onerous task of unifying that polity. This is usually more urgent in presidential elections, more so the ones that are closely fought like the August 2022 presidential election where the difference between the two leading candidates fits into the classical definition of neck to neck. Democracy has demonstrated over and over again that those that emerge as great leaders are those that used their words prudently to inspire, console, and to rally their country toward a particular course. Abraham Lincoln is viewed as a historical martyr in part because of his now-famous Gettysburg, which he delivered in Gettysburg Pennsylvania just a couple of months after his Union Armies had defeated the Confederate Forces. For the avoidance of doubt, I want to draw parallels between President William Ruto and President Abraham Lincoln. Like Abe, Dr Ruto came into the Presidency when the country was shrilly crying out for leadership. After he defeated the Southern Confederate Army, Lincoln would have chosen to chest thump, to stage a lap of honour but he chose to rally his countrymen and women behind his country's highest ideal; democracy and inclusivity. "These men shall not have died in vain-that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom and that the Government of the people... shall not perish from the face of the earth." This is where I want to express my anxiety and impatience with President Ruto. The otherwise skilful politician has let his words not mean anything to so many Kenyans since he became president. Do not get me wrong, I am not looking for an angelic President Ruto. Mwai Kibaki at Uhuru Park for a prayer meeting upon arrival from London in December 2002. [File, Standard] No, I appreciate fully that we, the people of Kenya elected into the high office a man of flesh and blood who will sometimes fall short as all men do when heavy burdens of responsibility is rested on their shoulders as we did on August 9. However, the president seems to forget that his words will more often than not dictate not only the policy direction, but also the political attitude of the people. It is said that when President Kibaki was elected in 2003, his kitchen cabinet was full of overzealous mandarins who wanted him to go after President Moi. However, we know that President Kibaki served as a sobering voice that tempered the overzealousness of men hellbent on revenge. He chose to rally the country from a wheelchair toward national reconstruction rather than the narrative on how evil the Nyayo regime in general and Moi, in particular, were. After 10 years, he left a country that was steadily on a path to recovery, but the work was far from over. As we were taught in Sunday School, those who plant the tree are sometimes not the ones who water it and certainly those who water the tree are not the ones that get to sit under its shade. We are only two generations removed from the independence generation. We are certainly a young country by almost all indices and matrices. Our forefathers' dream of eliminating disease, poverty, and ignorance remains largely unmet. Our people are still stuck in the mud of biting poverty and the dust of blinding ignorance. Our education system is currently in jeopardy as teachers, parents, and learners are muddling through school opening with muted sighs. IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati. [File, Standard] It is these daunting challenges that do not give the president the latitude to voice his every thought and disappointment casually. As the Head of State, the president must be restrained in his public utterances lest he chips away his political capital and ends up spending the remainder of his first term firefighting. To say that certain individuals were plotting to abduct and eliminate the outgoing IEBC boss without accompanying it with the necessary investigation of those individuals in a process that is public and transparent, is a political bastardisation that should not be left to stand. The mere fact that the president's predecessor was willing to facilitate a smooth transition in itself should be an incentive enough for the president to shift his sight from the rearview mirror into the road ahead, for 50 million Kenyans have entrusted their fate in his hands. As the good book cautions us in James 1:19, "Our leaders must be swift to hear, slow to speak, and even slower to wrath." -Mr Kidi is a governance and policy expert. kidimwaga@gmail.com

Of 'murder plot' and why Ruto must always speak with caution

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