Madoadoa - Why Linturi is on The Receiving End

Over the weekend while addressing a UDA rally at Eldoret Meru Senator Mithika Linturi, made an infamous remark that caused an uproar around the country from both leaders and wananchi alike and has landed him in hot soup with various government agencies. Linturi was arrested Sunday morning by Eldoret detectives who had camped in and outside his hotel for the better part of the morning before he appeared, and was whisked to Gigiri police station in Nairobi. The Meru Senator Mithika Linturi will cool his heels in the cells awaiting to be arraigned in court tomorrow(Monday) morning.

But why all the fuss about this ‘madoadoa’ word? You might ask. To understand these, first, let's get the literal meaning. The word is a Swahili word that simply means ‘spots’ in the English language. Madoadoa was used in the run-up to the 2007 election by politicians and locals in the rift valley to refer to non-indigenous people living among them. It was a rallying call by the locals who targeted especially the Kikuyu community who were the majority of the madoadoa group. Others in this madoadoa group were the Kisii community and a host of other non-Kalenjin-speaking communities. The year 2007 is not a year many people would love to remember for obvious reasons. This is the year that Kenya almost descended on the precipice and was on the brink of a civil war. All this is believed to have been ignited by such careless talk of madoadoa and kwekwe. The call was ‘toa madoadoa na mung’oe kwekwe’. Meaning removing the spots and uprooting the weeds. Later the Kikuyus and other non-Kalenjin tribes were forcefully and violently evicted from their homes, houses torched, property unlawfully seized by neighbors chanting war songs and in the process, several people were killed and maimed. Up to date some displaced people have never gone back to their land nor got back their property.

Kiambaa church that was burnt to ashes with defenseless women and children in it, is in Eldoret, and So for Meru Senator Mithika Linturi to have chosen Eldoret rally to make those remarks was symbolic and people might argue was also calculated. In as much as he might not have meant to incite the locals but the location and the choice of words were very suspect and his Achilles heel so to speak. The cheering and excitement from the crowd and podium gave an indication of how much the remarks resonated well with them. It's important to note that not a single speaker in that rally stood to condemn Linturi’s remarks. These remarks by the Meru senator Mithika Linturi evoked bad memories and sparked fears of incitement and the reoccurrence of election violence. This is why Meru Senator Mithika Linturi is in hot soup and might not be coming out anytime soon. The 2022 general elections campaigns should not be a repeat of 2007 campaigns that led to the chaos.