Shooting Theyself on the foot: Raila Statement

If the statement titled “Forged UK Dossier” (SN March 11, 2012), is indeed genuine, then the authors did a great disservice to the Prime Minister by insinuating that Messer’s Ruto and Kenyatta should be arrested. The overall thrust of the statement communicated the essential message, that the dossier tabled in parliament was a forgery targeted at the Prime Minister.

However, by intimating that the Ocampo 4 should be in prison, the authors of this statement, diverted attention away from the essential message and guaranteed that the headline would be “Uhuru and Ruto ought to be in Jail…” This headline plays right into the hands of the PM’s detractors and those ignoble individuals who seek to impugn the ICC process by arguing it is a plot between “local and foreign powers” to guarantee Raila’s election. In addition, the call for arrest essentially “confirms” the argument propounded in the “UK dossier” that “The way forward is to push for detention at the court on the pretext that they are a security threat.”

From a public relations stand point (and considering the Prime Minister’s previous reticence toward commenting on the case) this statement has done tremendous damage to the PM’s cause and feeds into the “perception” that he is rooting for the downfall of his opponents, and in politics, perception soon becomes reality.