Ruto Wants Waki's Envelope to Head to The Hague, Now!

William Ruto, energized by his emphatic victory against a vote of no confidence moved in Parliament last week, over the maize scandal, has now turned his attention to that other matter of post-election violence, in which nearly everyone believes he was so complicit that his name cannot but be in the list in Waki's envelope. In a surprising move, he declared over the weekend, as reported in the media, that Kofi Annan should take Waki's envelope straight to the Hague. To him, all this talk of a local tribunal and a two-month extension of Waki's deadline is merely a waste of time -- a beating about the bush -- which he will have none of.

In this, Ruto is openly disagreeing with Raila, the Prime Minister, who is mulling another initiative to establish a local tribunal as an alternative to the Hague, despite that idea's recent rejection by a Parliament in which Raila's coalition has a slim majority. And I agree with him. Raila even reported, astonishingly, that Annan had allowed Kenya a two month extension, at most; astonishing because nobody seemed to know that Annan had the mandate to extend/alter Waki's deadline, and nobody, except perhaps Raila, believes that he has. Let's let it go now!

The country's future political health clearly requires a visit to the Hague. The paradox is that a presumed culprit is all for it, while those who would presumably benefit from his fall -- and who would like to see him suffer and out of the way -- rather nervously want to keep him as far away from that same Hague as they possibly can! He wants to go, but they don't want him to -- a perfect sado-masochist bind.

Are there beans they fear he will spill, even as he falls? Might such spilling lead to their own irreparable fall -- their own inevitable path to that same place? I see that Sudan's Al Bashir is increasingly and publicly beside himself with trepidation arising from his own likely indictment by the mighty ICC, a date with which is not a picnic -- and from which, in the end, no one can hide. If Ruto was, he seems no longer to be; but someone else apparently is! What is it that someone knows that Ruto knows that shouldn't be known by Tom, Dick and Harry -- and Wanjiku?

If President Kibaki and Raila -- who on a previous occasion Ruto had said should be the ones going to the Hague (since, he had argued, all post-election violence was carried out in their name) -- want a local tribunal for the spanner-boys, the small men, of the violence, that's fine. However, the big boys should all be headed to the Hague, to meet their match. They can have all the time they want there, as we watch with waning interest from afar. All that may be far from good for many, but it will be good from far for just as many.