Ruto’s chicken coop needs State security

The law enforcement people have had their hands full in recent weeks.

From western Kenya, there have been chilling reports of gang attacks targeting private security guards at trading centres. During one such night attack, five guards were hacked to death in Vihiga.

Three days ago, a village mob butchered their chief in Tharaka-Nithi County, and then another crowd in Embu County laid ambush and lynched a police station boss, who had led a team to apprehend a suspect in the chief’s murder.

For all the lives lost and the shocking manner those crimes were executed, they don’t seem to have elicited the same impassioned public debate as the petty theft at Deputy President William Ruto’s rural home in Sugoi Village, Uasin Gishu County, the other day.

No doubt Mr Ruto’s status in society had a role in the kind of public attention the reported stealing of 10 crates of eggs from his chicken coop received.

Social media conversation around the theft featured folks wondering how small-time thieves managed to it pull off at the Deputy President’s heavily guarded home.

Some cited the irony of Mr Ruto, who has fashioned himself as the Hustler in response to people questioning the source of his immense wealth, falling victim to the acts of Kenyans trying to earn a living by hook or crook.

And then there were those who were not amused at the kind of attention the police paid to the Sugoi egg theft.

This lot thought there were more serious cases worth the police’s time, including the suspected loss of billions of shillings from corrupt dealings in Arror and Kimwarer dam projects.

The police have since dropped the Sugoi case after the parties involved reportedly asked to be allowed to settle it themselves.

The four suspects initially linked to the theft were said to be Mr Ruto’s farm workers.

The decision to withdraw the police complaint looks like a smart political move considering the kind of embarrassment continued negative publicity around the 300 eggs could have caused the boss.

Yet it should not distract the authorities from the need to handle VIP security for the Deputy President more seriously.

Mr Ruto’s early campaigns for the 2022 presidential election appear to be built on grievance mongering and conspiracy theories meant to position him as the anti-establishment candidate.

This script casts him in the starring role of a superhero peasant boy destined to become president but is being molested by the political dynasties.

Cue the recent noise that there were no local security arrangements for the Deputy President’s function in Nyeri and that MPs allied to him had had their bodyguards withdrawn.

Past experience shows that such grievance mongering and conspiracy theories by politicians can spawn a big national security problem in Kenya in an election year.

If beefing up security around their chicken coops can help, so be it.