This archive report was first published on 14 June 2020.
June 14, 2020, marked a significant day for transparency as Wikileaks made public a vast collection of files, including those related to the 2007 post-election violence in Kenya.
According to the leaked files, Deputy President William Ruto played a significant role in the violence, which erupted after former President Mwai Kibaki was declared the winner of the presidential election held on December 27, 2007.
The files reveal that Ruto held a meeting with senior ODM leaders in Kipkelion near Kericho in August 2007, where they discussed plans to carry out mass evictions of non-Kalenjins from their Rift Valley areas.
During a ceremony for the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Mailing, Ruto allegedly made a statement that would 'shake off the soil,' 'gather it together,' and 'burn it,' in reference to outsider communities.
He also allegedly incited the local Kalenjin and Luhya communities against the Kikuyu at a meeting in Bisabol shopping centre in Turbo near Burnt Forest and directed that they should be attacked if they dared campaign in the areas.
The leaked files contain the names of over 50 individuals responsible for the 2007-08 Kenyan crisis, which was a political, economic, and humanitarian crisis that had far-reaching consequences for the country.
