Itumbi case should worry us all

We enter the New Year, and eight-month countdown to the 2022 General Election, with the reported abduction and savage beating up of Deputy President William Ruto’s digital media strategist sounding the alarm bells. 

Mr Dennis Itumbi was allegedly seized by a group of unknown men in broad daylight as he left a Nairobi barber shop last Thursday. He was bundled into a car and finally dumped by the roadside late that night much the worse for wear.

If that account holds true, it sends fearful signals about the risks Kenya faces on the last lap to pivotal elections that will see a change of guard from outgoing President Uhuru Kenyatta.

The general presumption is that, unless proved otherwise, the alleged abduction and torture of Mr Itumbi was the handiwork of a state security machinery gone berserk.

Indeed, Ruto allies, who are also Itumbi’s comrades-in-arms, were quick to point the finger at a security and administrative establishment they had been accusing of being mobilised against the DP.

They were particularly keen to suggest culpability on the Cabinet Secretary for Interior, Dr Fred Matiang’i, the Principal Secretary, Dr Karanja Kibicho, and Inspector-General of Police Hilary Mutyambai.

The three have been victim of Itumbi’s toxic pen in the past two or so years, and presumably have motive to wreak vengeance.

Mere suspicion, however, is not enough to indict anyone. Still, the three gentlemen occupy a space in the country’s security establishment, where they must be above suspicion.

It is, therefore, imperative that they take it as a personal mission to demand—nay, direct—thorough investigations into the ordeal Mr Itumbi suffered.

It’s in their own self-interest that the matter be concluded speedily and brought to closure with the arrest and prosecution of those behind the savagery—be they police officers, political hirelings, criminal elements or all three rolled into one.

What they have to recognise is that this is not just about an individual many see as ‘Dennis the Menace’ but public trust in the institutions of governance, particularly in the justice, law and order sector.

This is especially critical in an election year, when the public demands and expects that all the organs of State will be diligent, neutral and fiercely independent of influence or pressure from any of the competing political formations.

History of political violence

Given our recent history of political violence, we can’t afford to go into an election year when suspicion and mistrust pollute the atmosphere.

Violence of the kind inflicted on Mr Itumbi is completely unacceptable in a modern democracy. It brings up chilling reminders of the regimes we shed blood to oust, starting with the British Gulag of the colonial occupation and on to brutality of the one-party regime police state under Kanu.

What Mr Itumbi underwent must serve as a warning that political repression remains a clear and present danger; and a reminder that eternal vigilance remains the key to liberty.

As previously stated, this is not just about an individual but about each and every one of us, of whatever political persuasion, who may at one time or the other fall afoul of the government.

There will be some who argue that the controversial foot soldier in the Ruto camp got what he deserved. Let us never forget, however, that we may support repression and injustice when we imagine we are on the right side of power but, one day, the boot will be on the other foot.

This truism, ironically, holds true in Mr Itumbi’s own story. As an over-zealous cog in the ‘Uhuruto’ political machine, he openly supported repression, police excesses, defiance of the courts and limitations of human rights, civil liberties and freedom of expression.

When the Jubilee regime fell apart and Itumbi found himself in the Ruto ‘opposition’, the boot was on the other foot.

That is a lesson for all of us, not justification for maltreatment of any individual. Even the fact that Itumbi has a history of tales that eventually fall short on the burden of proof—like the alleged Mada Hotel assassination plot against Mr Ruto in 2019 or his own escape in an attempted carjacking and shooting incident last August—must not factor in attempts to get to the bottom of what happened last week.

Those who hate Mr Itumbi have nothing to cheer on his ordeal. Neither do his political friends, who have been busy taking and sharing pictures in celebratory mood by his hospital bed.

What matters now is not cheap politics but that those responsible be put safely behind bars. We must all demand justice for Itumbi rather than seek political points on his misfortune.

Meanwhile, a Happy and Prosperous New Year for all my friends, enemies, countrymen. And women.

[email protected]. www.gaitho.co.ke @MachariaGaitho