Kalonzo links Kitui clashes to plot by State to delay General Election

Opposition leader Kalonzo Musyoka has linked the communal conflict between Akamba farmers and Somali herders with a political motive aimed at postponing next year’s polls.

Kalonzo castigated President William Ruto's administration for what he described as failing to protect life and property, claiming there was a ‘‘deliberate intention to escalate the conflict and delay the next polls’’.

Addressing the press at his SKM Command Centre yesterday, the Wiper Patriotic Front party leader claimed Ruto had lost ground in every corner of the country and that his only remaining strategy is to create disharmony ahead of next year’s General Election.

“In my statement of April 26th, I demanded answers from President Ruto. I named names. I asked who armed these men, how they travelled in vehicles across county borders undetected, and why a government warning about these tensions again and again chose to do nothing. Those questions remain unanswered. The silence from the State House is not administrative. It is moral. It tells the people of Tseikuru — and every vulnerable Kenyan in every forgotten corner of this republic — exactly where they stand in this regime’s order of priorities,” he said.

 At the same time, Kalonzo associated the ongoing attacks that claimed seven lives on April 25 in Tseikuru, Kitui County, with Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale's remarks, which he made during President Ruto’s visit to North Eastern, which he described as ethnic threats.

 “CS Duale, in Mandera, said that we in the Opposition should not be allowed to go past the Tana River. He said so in Kisomali (Somali dialect) and we got the translation. I must tell Duale that even as he says we should not cross over, there are so many Kambas residing in Garissa, Mandera and other areas. Our brothers from the pastoralism communities are not criminals,’ he said

Kalonzo added, “Duale’s remarks in the wake of this massacre were inflammatory, ethnically charged, and dangerous. I do not use the words loosely — it is deliberate: what Duale said amounts to hate speech under the supreme law of this land.

‘‘ The right to freedom of expression does not extend to advocacy of hatred that constitutes ethnic incitement, vilification of others, or incitement to cause harm.”

While calling on the National Cohesion and Integration Commission and the Director of Public Prosecutions to investigate Duale’s statements without delay, he told Ruto, ‘‘a CS who reaches for ethnicity as a weapon while families and communities are reeling from unimaginable tragedy is not fit to serve this Republic. Your silence is not distant. It is, in my considered opinion, an endorsement of CS Duale’s callous remarks.”

Kalonzo said elders from both communities would meet today in Mwingi for peace talks for a long-lasting solution, saying he was ready to lead the mediation process, which he said would later lead to the establishment of peace initiatives from both communities.

But in a separate press conference yesterday, Duale appealed for peace and unity even as he urged political leaders to come together and preach peace, saying Kenya belongs to all communities.

“I want to send a message of peace and unity for our people in Tana River… and by extension, Garissa, and the neighbouring Isiolo County. Peace is very expensive,” Duale said while stressing that communities live across the country and should not be divided along ethnic lines.

 He urged the security agencies to pursue those behind the killings and ensure they face justice.

“The security agents must also make sure that criminals and bandits and people who want to kill others and have killed people must be apprehended and brought to book,” he said.

 Meanwhile, the North Eastern Parliamentary Group demanded that security agencies act urgently, firmly and with impartiality to restore law and order amid the escalating violence along the Mwingi-Garissa Road.

The MPs led by Eldas MP Adan Keynan yesterday condemned the loss of innocent lives, injuries to civilians and the extensive destruction of property, saying that the alarming developments represent a serious deterioration of security and stability within the affected areas.

Keynan led more than 10 MPs in urging communities within the affected areas to exercise restraint, desist from any retaliatory actions and embrace dialogue and lawful mechanisms for conflict resolution.

“Such actions strike at the very foundation of peaceful coexistence that communities in this region have long endeavoured to build and sustain.’’