By Phil Wesonga
As soon as I saw @GeorgeKegoro’s piece I knew the likes of Dennis Itumbi would play into his hands on the mere account that Kegoro claimed Kuria was not charged in court with hate speech. But that does not change material facts nor the gist of the Kegoro’s message.
In his usual tactless style, Itumbi is ready to discredit Kegoro on account of unrelated events at the supreme court corridors, further going into irrelevancies of dragging names of members of the civil society to try and divert attention from the real issue, which in my view is whether Dikembe’s case was justified and fair.
On the basis of a single Facebook status update (claimed to have been planted by Jubilee ‘HACKERS’), and while he was on an academic trip to the USA, Dikembe became a victim of sustained Jubilee government witch-hunt led by none other than their social media hatchet boy Mugo Wa Wairimu.
On one hand, Kuria has all been about hurling daily direct hateful and offensive insults to the person of Raila Odinga, his tribe and the ODM community in general, while on the other hand my friend Dikembe Disembe only allegedly made a single FB update in which he did not mention any tribe, political party or anyone individually with respect to his review of the Mpeketoni Attack.
Talk about both facing the same charge and the same bail terms! Granted that both Dikembe and Kuria had their days in court, it goes without saying both Kuria and Wairimu are adequately insulated against court action due to their closeness to the powers that be. On the other hand, jobless Dikembe is a sitting duck and was outed, condemned and summoned purely because he is perceived to be pro-opposition. To his credit, Dikembe went as far as issuing a public apology.
His “partern in crime” the foul mouthed Kuria has remained arrogant and unapologetic. As a public servant Itumbi has a moral obligation to remain neutral and if he must comment on these two cases, then he has to condemn both “wrongs” on equal measure.
Itumbi cannot pretend to be blind to provisions of Chapter 6 of the constitution. Out on bond Kuria, also caught on tape issuing chilling death threats to blogger Robert Alai, has been seemingly been vetted by both TNA and IEBC, and deemed fit to run for public office. The same fella and his party have gone ahead and ‘bought’ all potential opponents in Gatundu South parliamentary seat and he now stands on the door step of the 11the parliament without ever stepping into a polling station. That is the example a ruling party TNA has set for us all to follow.
Its also wrong for Itumbi to accuse people of being cheerleaders of the ICC process against the president. The civil society has an obligation to fight for justice on behalf of helpless victims. Those case started well in advance of Uhuruto ‘rigging’ themselves into office. Denis Itumbi can then dare wax lyrical about the truth and justice at a court of law, as if he ever justifiably clarified the issue of his forged diploma certificate from KIMC, and he being a public servant enjoying tax payer perks meaning he has more obligation to be objective, transparent and accountable than others.