At this rate, who will put the genie of ethnic hatred back into the bottle?

The Hague-bound duo Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto might just feel they are justified to reply in kind to the invective they have endured from Prime Minister Raila Odinga.

It cannot be fun having to withstand public insults as drunkards, drug addicts, thieves and land-grabbers.

That is the kind of language Mr Odinga was liberally dishing out against Deputy Prime Minister Kenyatta and suspended Cabinet minister Ruto before the two went on the counter-offensive.

As they board their flight for The Hague tonight – along with the four others summonsed by the International Criminal Court to answer accusations of crime against humanity during Kenya’s descent into post-election butchery – Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto might be grimly satisfied that they have firmly and aggressively hit back at Mr Odinga.

They might even be quite happy that the whole sorry episode has given them the opportunity to solidify their respective political bases.

They have elevated themselves to ethnic kings, and even issued warnings that those ‘‘subjects’’ who fail the test of blind obedience will be dealt with.

That warning reminded me of a small incident a few month ago that I’d already put to the back of my mind. I was walking down Koinange Street one afternoon when I came across three gentlemen having a conversation on the sidewalk.

One of them recognised me and called me over. I am often accosted by total strangers on the streets, in bars, in supermarkets and so on, all with comments on something I’ve written.

But the encounter took an ominous turn when one of the men, said they would soon pay me a “visit”. Why, I wondered?

“Because you are one of us and yet you write bad things about Mzee”, he responded. ‘Mzee’, of course, being President Kibaki and “one of us” being the Kikuyu community.

“But Mzee himself has never complained”, I innocently responded. “Mzee may not say anything, but we are the ones who guard his seat”, I was told with finality.

I moved on and forgot about the matter, but the warning last week against those who refuse to toe one man’s ethnic defence line revised that encounter.

On Tuesday night the departure terminal at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport might be reminiscent of those old times when a student headed for an overseas university would be accompanied to the airport by virtually the whole village in an amazing collection of rickety ‘Jogoo Kimakia’ buses – multiplied a hundredfold.

You can be sure that when the Ocampo Six come back after a brief appearance at The Hague, they will have organised the mother of all welcomes for the ‘triumphant warriors’.

Politics is a game of few rules, but even as Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto revel in the drama, they might want to pause and consider whether they are unleashing a genie of violence they will not be able to put back in the bottle.

The hatred, the angry rhetoric, the vitriol, anger and bitterness being spat out is outright inciting. It is reminiscent of the vicious campaign waged by the Kanu oligarchy in the early 1990s against the push for democracy.

Across the Rift Valley, the supposedly ‘‘indigenous’’ communities were primed to wage war against so-called ‘‘aliens’’ who would grab their land, confiscate their livestock and take their women if multipartyism came to be.

It was anger and hatred created then that was stoked further with the disputed 2007 elections.

Just when Kenyans thought that the worst was past with passage of a new Constitution and prospects for reconciliation and healing, some are stoking the flames all over again.

To date, some people in the Moi regime might regret the monster they unleashed in 1991, especially because it eventually came to consume them too.

Who will contain the one currently being spawned if things get out of control? The government, part of the scheme, has already been criminal enough to prophesy that violence will break out if the Ocampo Six are arraigned.

Those orchestrating the call to battle will be safely ensconced in their fortified mansions if the streets start flowing with blood.

mgaitho@ke.nationmedia.com