This archive report was first published on 18 July 2020.
Makau Mutua Declines William Ruto's Campaign Offer ¶
On several occasions, I have been approached by a top commander in Deputy President William Ruto's campaign team to work with them to get Ruto to State House in 2022. I was dumbfounded by the idea and have kept my counsel until now.
As the Chair of the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC), which I co-founded three decades ago, I have always stood for democracy and human rights in Kenya. My experience with Ruto's campaign team has only strengthened my resolve to reject their offer.
My decision is based on Ruto's anti-democratic legacy and the numerous allegations of corruption against him. The case on crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court, which was 'withdrawn' due to sabotage, cemented my political disdain for Ruto. He has also been alleged to be involved in several corruption scandals and has never lifted his finger to fight for democracy or human rights in Kenya.
Ruto's track record is marred by his involvement in the No Campaign against the 2010 Constitution and his alleged role in land scandals. In one case, a court found him liable for buying the grabbed farm of one Adrian Muteshi amidst the 2007-2008 poll violence. He was forced to return the farm to Muteshi.
Furthermore, there are unsolved crimes that have focused investigation on his office, including the murder of Sgt Kipyegon Kenei, a senior policeman in Ruto's Harambee House Annex office. Ruto himself suggested that the 'Deep State' may have killed Kenei to implicate and 'finish' him politically.
Given Ruto's anti-democratic legacy and the allegations of corruption, it stretches credulity that any legitimate civil society organisation would ever have anything to do with him. I challenge anyone to produce evidence that Ruto has ever fought for democracy or human rights in Kenya.
It is an open secret that Ruto and his brain-trust have targeted civil society groups like the KHRC to penetrate, convert, and instrumentalise them into witting, or unwitting, allies. I will not allow this to happen over my dead body.
While Ruto has a democratic right to run for the highest office in the land, he shouldn't expect civil society, or its leading icons, to sanitise him. I give him and his acolytes credit for throwing this long-shot Hail Mary, but they are mistaken if they think they can capitalise on sections of civil society's disaffection with ODM leader Raila Odinga.
It therefore behooves every Kenyan with a democratic conscience to shun Ruto's entreaties like the plague. He can run for State House, but he will have to do so without the help of those who've fought him and his ilk for a better Kenya.
Those of us who've been in the trenches for decades don't have a price. This is what Ruto's commander who approached me – and who shall remain nameless – should know.
— Makau Mutua is SUNY Distinguished Professor and Margaret W. Wong Professor at Buffalo Law School. He's Chair of KHRC. @makaumutua
