Deputy President William Ruto’s campaign in Busia was disrupted by a band of violent and brainless youths on Saturday. They barricaded roads. They pelted cars in the entourage with stones and lit bonfires.
This type of thoughtless barbarity, almost certainly planned and bankrolled by a politician, has become a hallmark of our politics – cheap, hollow, shameful, even embarrassing.
In every election year clerics, the police and even the National Cohesion and Integration Commission, preach against violence and hate speech. But our deceitful politicians, on account of the billions in campaign war chests, have institutionalised violence.
Corruption long robbed them of the ability to run a robust issue-based debate. Politicians (they like to pass off as leaders but have no capacity to lead) are at odds with very aspirations of the people they purport to represent.
Hillary Mutyambai, the Inspector General of Police, must move with speed and do what he was hired to do – maintain law and order. He must conduct a ruthless investigation, arrest and prosecute the thugs.
The Busia mayhem is just but a tip of the iceberg. If the mob is not punished, their actions will embolden politicians and youths to organise even more violence.
