I don’t know whether to be sad or angry over President William Ruto’s reaction to the American and Israeli attack on Iran. Instead of focusing on the source of a conflict which has grave repercussions for Kenya and the rest of the world, the president, in the fashion of other western lackeys, blames the victim.
Condemning Iranian retaliatory strikes on Israel and US military bases in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman, Kuwait, Jordan and Bahrain is not only dishonest; but exposes a president who might be hock to the aggressors.
It is instructive that a statement supposed to be the official Kenyan position came from State House rather than the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; hence the likelihood that it reflected President Ruto’s personal biases rather than well-thought-out consideration of Kenyan interests.
Now, this is no defense of an Iranian theocratic dictatorship that tramples on the rights of its own people and supports terrorist groups that threaten peace and security in the Middle East and across the rest of the world. However, there can be no denying that the US and Israel have carried out an unprovoked and unjustified attack on a sovereign nation, however detestable that nation may be.
Any country under attack has the right to act in self-defence, and the military bases and territories being used as springboards for aerial bombardments become legitimate targets.
The American and Israeli attacks on Iran launched in the last day of February were based on lies no different from the sins committed by President George W. Bush with the 2003 invasion of Iraq on allegations, subsequently proved false, that the Saddam Hussein regime was amassing Weapons of Mass Destruction.
This attack, planned and executed unilaterally by American President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, was similarly justified on unproven allegations that Iran was progressing with a nuclear arms programme and also building ballistic missiles that could potentially hit targets in the United States.
According to all available information, that was a blatant lie. Only last June, the US and Israel carried out a wave of bombardments targeting Iranian military facilities, after which President Trump boasted the country’s ability to produce and fire nuclear missiles had been completely obliterated.
It is inconceivable that just eight months later, Iran has allegedly rebuilt an arsenal that poses immediate danger to the US or other countries far from its borders. According to multiple reports from various sources, not even the CIA and other American security and defence analysis organs have provided the slightest bit of evidence that Iran has the capability or any plans to launch offensive actions anywhere.
In the absence of a rationale for the attack, the only conclusion one can draw is that in time-honoured fashion of all dictators, President Trump needed a war to divert attention from mounting domestic woes, including plummeting approval ratings and, more seriously, damaging impact of the child sex allegations from his relations with infamous paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Leaders under siege love wars. They need to rally their citizens around them and build up patriotic fervour against external enemies, tactics Premier Netanyahu is familiar with from the never-ending series of conflicts he launches against foes in the Middle East, especially as elections approach.
Mr Netanyahu is already facing International Criminal Court indictment for genocide out of the murderous campaign that has killed thousands of innocent Palestinians in Gaza, in a response completely out of proportion to attacks by the Hamas terrorist group.
With support from Mr Trump, it is apparent that the Israeli leader is pursuing a policy aimed at elimination of the Palestinian people, a genocide our own President Ruto has implicitly supported with early comments from State House that were at odds with the thinking of Foreign ministry professionals.
The latest unwise intervention is in the same mould. It suggests that President Ruto is pursuing policies dictated by his personal ties to Christian religious extremism and American far-right evangelists rather than the Kenyan national interest.
While the president is right in calling for de-escalation of the conflict, he should be demanding that Trump and Netanyahu cease their dangerous military adventurism by halting without delay unjustifiable attacks on Iranian sovereignty.
If Iran is indeed a threat to her neighbours and beyond, any action must be based on clear and incontrovertible evidence rather than naked lies, and preferably under the umbrella of multilateral arrangements; not left to freelance actions by rogue leaders who are coming out as the biggest threats to global peace and security since Adolf Hitler.
Mr Gaitho, an independent journalist, is former NMG Managing Editor for Special Projects. [email protected]
