MOI vows to teach RUTO a lesson he will NEVER FORGET

Ruto loss will deny Uhuru victory

Former President Daniel arap Moi has declared war on The National Alliance (TNA) deputy president aspirant William Ruto and vowed to teach him “a lesson he will never forget” throughout his life. He has also asked Kalenjin elders and professionals to ensure Ruto losses his political grip on the Kelenjin including his grassroots tentacles in Eldoret North.

During a top secret meeting with some Kalenjin elders (Kateb kokweet) that included his old friend Ezekiel Barngetuny, last Friday at his Kabarak home, Moi made it clear that he would reduce Rutoto the “hustler” he was before he transformed him into a multi-millionaire. “This ungrateful fellow must sleep on the bed he has been making over the years. He should not be allowed to destroy the Kalenjin community order and social fabric by disparaging elders and tarnishing their respect,” the former president literally declared.

More specifically, he declared he was prepared to ensure that Ruto does not get votes, “other than his own and his immediate family” within Eldoret North itself and will use every means available to him to achieve his goal. He directed his son Gideon, who was present, to unleash a powerful Kanu campaign to endear the former ruling party to all communities in the Rift Valley and mobilize them to vote for Kanu and the Musalia Mudavadi led United Democratic Forum (UDF) Amani alliance candidates.

Apparently Moi has never forgiven Ruto for the erosion of political clout he has suffered in the Rift Valley and Kenya as a whole. He must be particularly bitter about the burning of his farms and carnage on his cattle during the 2008 post election violence directed against him by hired Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) Kelenjin vandals for supporting Kibaki re-election.

It is for the same reason that he finds it difficult to support ODM presidential aspirant and Prime Minister Raila Odinga. Moi also has an active grudge against Raila for deserting him in 2003 along with key Kanu ministers to join President Mwai Kibaki and subsequently defeat Kanu after lavishing him with money-making energy and roads ministries and a bonus of the Kisumu Molasses plant.

Moi’s onslaught on Ruto will undermine and deny TNA presidential aspirant Uhuru Kenyattasupport in the vote rich Rift Valley without which he cannot win the State House tenancy. The threat is real because money will not stand in the way of the multi-billionaires family and money will be a major determinant in the General Election. Moi met Mudavadi last Saturday but the UDF aspirant seems to have resigned himself to fate and wants to craw back to parliament through nomination along with his running mate.

Moi unknowingly betrayed himself when revealed his dirty election tricks that kept him in power for 24 years, when the told the elders that he was ready to buy out the estimated 110,000 Eldoret North constituency voters for Ksh 1,000 each. That would be a cool Ksh 110 million. That may be a clear message that there will be vote buying in the Rift Valley.

Uhuru’s family has also opened its purse wide in a bid to reclaim State House vacated by the late President Jomo Kenyatta in 1978 bequeathing the family with billions of shillings in cash and other assets – among them the now controversial tracts of land in Central, Coast, Eastern and Rift Valley provinces. There have been claims that the family is disposing some of the land in the Rift Valley for billions of shillings ahead of the next government and to fund Uhuru’s campaign. Official records held by the lands ministry can confirm that.

Some of the land was sold to the government to resettle the internally displaced persons (IDPs) generated by the 2007-2008 post election violence. Both Uhuru and Ruto are facing crimes against humanity charges at the Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC). Uhuru has in recent weeks imprudently claimed that President Kibaki and Raila should also be charged over the violence because they were the 2007 presidential contestants.

Neither Kibaki nor Raila can be expected to take kindly of Uhuru’s public statements, which appear like the kicks of a dying horse. Uhuru has successfully applied to enjoin outlawed criminal gang former Mungiki leader Maina Njenga in the ICC case with the likely possibility of Njenga confirming Mungiki were recruited and paid by Uhuru and State House thereby confirming the TNA boss complicity - that could earn Uhuru 30 years jail if not more.

It is becoming increasingly clear to all that both Uhuru and Ruto are in the State House race to evade trial and long jail terms at The Hague. That is the main reason they removed Mudavadi as their presidential flag bearer for Jubilee even after it had been made amply clear to Uhuru that his presidency would complicate Kenya’s international relations with the dominant development partners from the West. Both the British and United States governments have said they would have nothing to do with Kenya with Uhuru as president.

The dangers of Uhuru-Ruto presidency would mean:

· International sanctions on Kenya’s coffee, tea and horticultural produce whose volumes are bought mainly by western countries – shutting off the country’s main foreign exchange earnings. Result - thousands of jobs would be lost.

· International freeze and suspension of financial support, including loans for vital projects by western countries and their institution like the World Bank. Result - this would stall several energy projects including exploitation of recently discovered oil, coal and gold deposits.

· Western governments freeze of political leaders’ off-shore accounts. Result; even Uhuruwould not access millions of dollars in foreign accounts – personal or business.

· Closure of the inflow of western tourists the bulk of who sustain the country’s tourism industry – including Uhuru’s own hotels. Result - thousands of jobs would be lost.

· Boycott of Kenya’s mineral exports. Result even Kenyatta family’s Taita-Taveta gemstones exploits would be affected.

· Boycott of many other Kenyan agricultural products. Result – millions of Kenyan farmers would be impoverished.

· Suspension of military equipment, training and defense co-operation – when Al Shabaab is wreaking havoc and internal security is in shambles. Result – creating greater insecurity.

· Suspension of western collaboration in social-cultural exchanges. Result – miss out on research, educational, medical, technical and professional.

· Transfer of the international gem of United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and Habitat headquarters elsewhere, most likely a European capital. Result loss of millions of dollars UNEP earns Kenya in foreign revenue in staff endowments and conferences.

· Migration and relocation of European firms to other African countries like Rwanda, Tanzania or Uganda. Result – more thousands of job losses.

Without a market for its agricultural exports and a shut down on Western tourists, Kenya would have no money to pay for her imports, including food and petroleum products. The cost of living in Kenya would soon be extremely difficult for ordinary citizens except the rich ruling elite in Uhuru and Rutopolitical club plus their loyalists. Joblessness would escalate, tax collection would dwindle and inflation, crime and insecurity would rise dramatically.

Moi’s tenure saw the dollar exchange escalate from a mere Ksh 7 when he took over in 1978 to over Ksh 70 when he went home to look after goats and cows in Kabarak. Going by Zimbabwe example where Mugabe has survived against all odds, the Central Bank of Kenya would in no time issue 10,000, 100,000 and million shilling denomination notes. Kenyans would be going to their neighbourhood kiosks with a basketful of notes to buy a loaf of bread.

This is not empty speculation, under the superintendence of Uhuru as finance minister, Kenyans in 2011 saw the shilling exchange at a record Ksh 130 against the US dollar. Simple arithmetic means over a span of one week, some people and banks made millions by simply buying and selling dollars repeatedly. Some banks are reported to have made as much as Ksh 50 billions as the shilling freely plummeted downwards.

Kenyans must decide if they want to put their country on a reverse gear back to the dark years of the Moi regime when industries closed down in Nairobi, Thika and other towns for lack of foreign exchange. Millions of Kenyans lost jobs and employment opportunities disappeared into thin air. Transport companies like Stage Coach migrated to create jobs in Malawi owing to Kenya’s dilapidated infrastructure. Heaps of garbage dominated the capital city of Nairobi and other urban centres and farming made no business sense.

Such situations have led to internal civil wars and military coups in many countries – including Kenya’s naighbouring Uganda, Somalia, Sudan and Ethiopia. The internal strife and military coups have had devastatingly deep economic wounds on many countries. Africa’s mineral rich Democratic Republic of Congo, among others, still grapples with acute poverty many years after the military deposed civilian government.

It is nonsensical for the Jubilee alliance duo to tell Kenyan voters that they will be able to run the country and attend The Hague trials at the same time. Running a country is a full time job as are The Hague cases. It is not clear how Uhuru and Ruto plan to be at two places at the same time - regardless of whatever they preach about the digital generation and all Apple’s Steve Jobs inventions – iPads, iPhones, iPods etc. That is shear public deceit. Uhuru wants to nominate his niece Beth back to parliament against her wish hoping she can hold the fort.

Should Uhuru and Ruto attend their cases mid April when they start, there is no way they will be allowed to fly back to campaign for their run-up elections in the middle of the trial. The most likely scenario will be for them to refuse to go to The Hague and wait for consequences. Alternatively they may request for an adjournment to allow them campaign but whichever way, there is every possibility that they are in for a major pounding by the CORD Alliance. Raila will happily hand them over to The Hague as good riddance.

culled from kenyaconfidential