Unravel puzzle of the relief food poisoning

The government has to resolve the puzzle of distribution of contaminated foodstuff in Kikuyu Constituency at the weekend. The residents and the rest of the country need to know who was behind that criminal activity. Not only is it immoral and decadent, it is also callous and extremely offensive.
At the core is insidious politics. A few days ago, Deputy President William Ruto and Kikuyu MP Kimani Ichung’wa distributed food to the residents to cushion them from the deprivations occasioned by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Politicians, corporate bodies and individuals have been making all sorts of donations to citizens across the county. Protocols have been laid out to guide the donations, precisely to avoid attracting crowds and create conducive conditions for coronavirus infection.

Making donations is a noble gesture. Individuals with capacity to give are encouraged to support the needy, especially at this critical moment. Underpinning this is the understanding that the government alone cannot feed everyone who is starving. But that has to be done in an organised manner.

Even so, politicians tend to use the donations as a chance to market themselves. Giving is not always the intention; there is an underlying objective, which is to entice people and earn political mileage. This is what is playing out in the Kikuyu case. Whoever distributed the food was pursuing a selfish agenda.

DP Ruto is in the thick of a political cross-fire that is linked to the presidential succession in 2022, when President Uhuru Kenyatta’s constitutional term comes to an end. Dr Ruto is being fought from all quarters.

Whatever he does or says is deeply scrutinised and, more often than not, interpreted in light of his professed political ambition. So, when he went to donate the foodstuff in Kikuyu, that gesture was perceived as a political venture.

For that reason, we cannot rule out the possibility of some perverts having used that platform of food distribution to besmirch Dr Ruto and the Kikuyu MP. Such nasty things have happened in the past and can still happen today.

politics, anything goes. Which is the reason it has been described as a “dirty game”.

Since the government has established channels for receiving and distributing relief food and other provisions, it behoves politicians and all other donors to use those existing structures to avoid such ugly incidents.

Importantly, the government must investigate and bring to book those behind the poisoned foodstuff and charge them for the criminal offence.

Playing politics with citizens’ lives is the height of debauchery. It is dangerous and cruel.