Barely a week after Narc came into power, a deadly attack by armed raiders occurred in seven Nakuru estates during which at least 23 people died.
The attack was blamed on the Mungiki sect, ostensibly over control of bus and matatu [commuter] routes. But this explanation did not wash with many people. The attacks were too well co-ordinated to be the work of hoodlums. Furthermore, it emerged that the attackers may have been financed by politicians.
The matter is in court and there is little one can say. But certainly, this was no spontaneous outpouring of emotions by people whose source of livelihood was threatened. This was organised violence with a definite message for the Government.
What happened next underscores this contention. On January 17, a group of raiders descended on a village in Kuresoi constituency, Molo, killed one person, and wounded two others. The bandits, nicknamed Taliban, apparently targeting members of the Kikuyu community, torched 30 houses leading to the flight of 300 families.
Again, no credible reasons were given for the raid. As was the case with the Nakuru mayhem, politicians were linked to the violence which, luckily, did not involve much bloodshed. But though the Government was quick to claim that this was ordinary cattle-rustling, many did not believe it. Molo is primarily an agricultural country, and people do not kill and burn houses to steal a few head of cattle. We are waiting to hear what the Government has done besides arresting a couple of politicians.
It would be tempting to consign these two incidents to teething insecurity problems facing the Narc Government. However, it has emerged that a bunch of Kanu politicians from Rift Valley Province have decided that the best way to keep the Government on its toes is to engage Narc in sabre-rattling and arm-flexing.
Last weekend, 14 of them met, ostensibly to celebrate the election of a colleague, and came up with rather startling charge that the Narc Government was targeting Kalenjins in general for removal from top jobs.
One of them even went to the extent of giving veiled warning to non-Kalenjins living in the Rift Valley should the apparent mistreatment of Kalenjins continue. In fact, he proclaimed loudly that Kalenjins are not cowards - the kind of language last heard days before tribal clashes erupted in the Rift Valley in 1991 and 1996.
To suggest that there is a link between this verbal diarrhoea and the localised mayhem in Molo and Nakuru could be far-fetched, but one cannot rule out the probability. In any case, what was most annoying was the pomposity and sheer arrogance of the utterances. They smacked of the ignorance displayed by people living in a time-warp, harking back to the time when a small number of Kanu MPs could make all sorts of belligerent, and even treasonous, statements with total impunity.
Strong language this, but there is a reason for it. First, the composition of the crowd was intriguing. The vast majority are neophytes in politics. It could not be expected that such people would have the courage to revive the ogre of tribal violence on their own. So the feeling was that these MPs must have been talking at the behest of someone operating behind the scenes.
Secondly, if they were wise, some of the MPs should not open their mouths just yet. The day of reckoning is coming when they will have enough time to tell Kenyans why their names keep cropping up in all kinds of shady deals.
Thirdly, there is a general feeling that the insecurity in parts of Rift Valley was orchestrated with the aim of making the province ungovernable. Should that be the case, it would be a terrible miscalculation.
Fourthly, and most important to me, is that these so-called leaders are dragging in the name "Kalenjin" into their private torments. The answer about jobs was terse and to the point: Since the previous president filled most of the top ranks in the civil service, provincial administration, parastatals and in the disciplined forces with people from his immediate neighbourhood, the new Government has no choice but to make them give way to other people who might deliver. Most of those being replaced now didn't.
What annoys most is that these rookie politicians cannot accept the reality - that their days in power are gone, perhaps forever. No government guided by the tenets of democracy can target a whole community due to the sins of an elite few. These MPs should stop hiding behind the nebulous Kalenjin identity. As Prof George Saitoti once eloquently put it, everyone should bear his or her own cross. The Kalenjin as a community do not have a cross to bear.