FALSE: MP Oscar Sudi’s clip doctored to depict hatred

On October 23, Kenyan Olympian medalist Agnes Tirop was laid to rest in her family home in Mosoriot, Nandi County.

The news about the death of Agnes came as a shock to the country and the entire world as she was a young promising talent in athletics.

She was celebrated as a heroine, and during her burial, the family, hundreds of friends, and colleagues turned up to give her the last respect.

Local politicians also attended the burial for the world 10,000m bronze medalist who was found dead on October 13 in her Iten home.

During the burial, a number of politicians were given the chance to speak, including Kapseret MP Oscar Sudi.

As expected, more so at this time in Kenyan politics, the elected leaders have to use the podium to try to urge the locals to reelect them or their preferred presidential candidates, which means that they can go to an extend of attacking their opponents.

Sudi’s name has been in the limelight in the country since he made his remarks last Saturday.

According to the video recorded while making his sentiments, the MP said accused some of the people in the region of attacking Deputy President William Ruto and calling him a thief as they please their powerful persons.

Sudi had accused Nandi politician Stephen Tarus, who is ODM leader Raila Odinga’s point man of tarnishing the DP’s name for the sake of his personal benefits.

But days later, part of the clip which is being circulated on social media has been edited and translated wrongly.

These are the exact words that were used by Sudi during his address:

“Hata kama unamdharau William Ruto kiasi gani. Hii tumbo yako ni ndogo sana na tumbo ya hawa watu ni nyingi sana. Ku ana heshima kidogo..hapana ita watu wezi (even if you hate William Ruto to that extend, your stomach is too small compared to all these people’s stomachs. Have some respect, don’t insult other people as thieves),” Sudi said.

He continued in his local dialect that:

“Motin kakisas bororiet, komesas kandoidet ab bororiet. Arap Ruto komo arap Ruto nebo karapa Samoe ineigen, amache inai komgeten raini amwoun. Arap Ruto ko kandoindet ab bororiet korong…ngalal ngalelkuk korong eng yuun, imwa ngalel kuk eng yuun lakini metwai Arap Ruto (even if you hate a community, don’t hate the leader of the community. DP Ruto is not for the Samoe only, I want you to know this today. The DP is the leader of the nation first…just speak of your needs there but don’t touch Ruto)

In the 48 seconds edited clip where Sudi is speaking in his local language, the captions have been written in Swahili to read that:

“Tunataka tujipange kama jamii tuchukue hii kiti na hakuna kuiachilia tena.  Alafu Arap Ruto Samoe ndiye anaweza kunyorosha hawa wakikuyu na wajaluo wajinga kabisa na hawataweza kucheza na sisi tena. Waendelee hivyo tu, tutawatafuta kila mahali watakua lakini waombe tusiwapate serikali ikiwa ya Ruto."

This translates to:

"We want to arrange ourselves as the community to capture this seat and we will not let it go again. The DP Ruto is the only one who can deal with this Kikuyus and the Luos and they will not play with us again. Let them continue that way, but we will look for them everywhere and let them pray that we don’t catch them when the government is being run by Ruto."

Ethically, a leader who has been elected by the locals more than once to represent them can hardly utter such words, more so in the presence of other leaders and the media.

As the country approaches general elections, such claims and rumours are expected to be rampant.

And if the said words were true, Sudi would have been summoned by National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) for hate speech and profiling local communities, which is a threat to the nation at this particular period.

Edited by D Tarus