Overheard in cyberspace
Person1
In my dictionary, this (photo hidden for reasons of decorum) qualifies as hate speech.
Person2
Hell no,,,
Tell God who bothers you..
Person1
in your prayers. privately.
Person2
Its painful that people might die tomorrow for just one stupid community
Person1
genocides have happened before, and counting....your prayer ought to be that no one dies unnecessarily tomorrow.
Person2
If you have the power to stop 1 person not to be killed , GOD will bless you for that 1 person u saved, its doesn't matter whether the rest has died , but that 1 person maybe God had plans for him.. !!
Literally they are aiming our community , why not aim them back...???
Person2
They are posting very dirty words on the president wall ??
Do you want usvto be just quiet and lets them do what they did to us last time,??
After they killed that when we are crying hard for mungiki to come to help??
My point..
Pray & do something about it,,,
Person1
tomorrow has nothing to do with one tribe against another. It has a lot to do with two politicians with conflicting psyches and a common ignorance on how to solve Kenyans' problems.
....their fight is not our fight. our best way forward is to note this and lock them out of office at the next opportune moment.
...but then again, they fools time and time again, and we always fall for the same lies every time. Maybe we are to blame.
Person2
Look son or either madaam .....
For them going there tomorrow there must be a point they want to prove,,,
Us sitting down and watch will help nothing at all !!
Its about time to make a move and show them we don't support we opposes their point.. we hav uhuru government and we voted for him, and he won against raila...
So they either be governed by him or they get to go somewhere else. ...
Its not their way or highway...
Its God's way for now, am ina battle to have peace in our country. .
Whether they want or not uhuru government rules and am part of it coz I voted...
Person1
..and we should all pause and reflect that the government is for all Kenyans. Those who voted for it and those that did not. Why are people dying (in the Coast county) even as we chat here in cyberspace? Does the government know how to stop these?
Person2
I know you are from ********, who are you if you don't mind me asking u???
Person1
this government would get my whole hearted support if it addressed the issues raised by the so-called opposition decisively. they have the majority of Kenyans' support but they are behaving as if they are the minority. They seem to be groping in the dark and a popular government ought to do better than that. I am from ******** but that is neither here nor there, and btw, I don't believe tomorrow will be the appropriate venue or forum for tackling the issues troubling Kenyans. The conveners are not the trouble shooters for our problems either. I pray for sanity for all concerned.
Person1
.....and I rest my case
Person2
We gotta be real incase of real situations. ..
Let's hope GOD WHO GAVE US THIS NATION, THIS LEADERS, THIS GOVERNMENT. .
HE IS STILL ON OUR SIDE, BUT LET'S US NOT BE QUIET, WE LEAD OTHERS & THE REST TO FOLLOW..
I THOT U ARE EDDIE CLASSMATE BUT IF U ARE NOT GOD BLESS U,
THANKS, N NICE TALK TO U...
BE BLESS GOD BLESS KENYA... ONE LOVE MY FRIEND. ..
Sunday, July 6, 2014
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
Sisi na Wao
Humans wherever or whatever their station in life become introversive in times of crisis. In Kenya too, aspiring politicians tend to whip up ethnic emotions geared towards the claim that they have their peoples' plight at heart. In this light, I would forgive the Grand Mullah and other Kenyan leaders of Cushitic descent and those from the Islam faith who I respect a lot when they play the ethnic or religion card in the on-going attempt by the government of Kenya to round up terrorists, illegal aliens and criminals. I sympathise too with my friends of the same descent, whom I know are deeply affected by the going-ons.
Compare the putsch to rout the Mungiki, prevalent among the Kikuyu community or that of the Sabot Land Defence Force in Mt Elgon area- If these communities would claim government engineered ethnic targeting, this would be a fallacy and actually work towards the entrenching of criminal characters in the relevant communities, a disservice to the fight against organised crime, needless to state that these selfsame communities bear the blunt of the atrocities by the relevant gangs.
All communities bear the responsibility of forging and minding their own attitudes towards nationhood, after all, a nation is made up of various different communities with varying ethnic customs and traditions, united by geographical proximity, defined by internationally recognised borders and subscribing to common ethics and aspirations under a clear code of governance. These responsibilities weigh more to those along the international borders because the peoples along these were unfairly separated by the colonial European powers in the 19th century because this tends to make their allegiances fluid. The Sabaot, the Maasai along the southern border, the Teso, the Chagga, the Turkana, the Kenyan Somalis comprising of the six or so clans along the north eastern border and of course in Eastleigh and other urban centres are specially called upon to guard the nation known as Kenya from the infiltration of relatives with ill intentions and the government of Kenya is by default charged with working with these communities to ensure this special duty is streamlined, in accordance with the rule of law; both local,international and natural justice.
We need credible administrative structures to look back into our own homesteads and backyards and identify characters that don't go along with our national principles of justice and peace. Communities breed criminals and terrorists and these communities at one time or another become victims of their own creatures. When these communities become too forgiving they are bound to meet the forces mandated to enforce law and order in one time or another. When this happens, it is not right to feel targeted or victimized as a community. They are simply being reminded to be more serious about their communal responsibilities and obligations. Community responsibility demands that at the local level, we acknowledge that there are those among us who will not batt an eye to do us harm to have their way. It is our responsibility to either work towards turning these elements into responsible citizens or simply assisting the security forces in apprehending them-be they our sons or daughters.
When one sees something going wrong and raises voice against it, that is responsibility and the end-sum of this in a national scale is real, tangible tranquility. State responsibility and culpability in our present quagmire is the deep rooted corruption and general neglect compounded by the ineptitude of our state organs- in all sectors. For too long our civil service departments, security forces, law enforcement have been used by the officials charged with running them as cash cows, minting presses rolling out national economy into pockets of individuals. While they are busy doing these, our borders have become as porous as nets. It has become easier for a foreigner to acquire national identification documents than for a native to do so.
We,(government and governed) are all culpable in the ills affecting our nationhood and though the governemnt takes the golden measure of this blame, we need to pull together to salvage the situation. Government needs to stay on target to root out all insecurity-terrorist or criminal driven and it needs to do so in accordance with the rule of law, it needs to enhance the structures that maintain and enforce the security of all its citizens no matter what their descent is- minority or majority in demographics. Government should provide the conducive environment for ethnic communities to live together in harmony in diverse customs and traditions- such traditions repugnant to the rule of law like cattle rustling and counter raids should be condemned by all and eradicated. We the people need to critic government on its negligence and offer positive reinforcement where necessary instead of just criticising without offering credible solutions. We are in this fight together. Ni sisi dhidi yao.
Compare the putsch to rout the Mungiki, prevalent among the Kikuyu community or that of the Sabot Land Defence Force in Mt Elgon area- If these communities would claim government engineered ethnic targeting, this would be a fallacy and actually work towards the entrenching of criminal characters in the relevant communities, a disservice to the fight against organised crime, needless to state that these selfsame communities bear the blunt of the atrocities by the relevant gangs.
All communities bear the responsibility of forging and minding their own attitudes towards nationhood, after all, a nation is made up of various different communities with varying ethnic customs and traditions, united by geographical proximity, defined by internationally recognised borders and subscribing to common ethics and aspirations under a clear code of governance. These responsibilities weigh more to those along the international borders because the peoples along these were unfairly separated by the colonial European powers in the 19th century because this tends to make their allegiances fluid. The Sabaot, the Maasai along the southern border, the Teso, the Chagga, the Turkana, the Kenyan Somalis comprising of the six or so clans along the north eastern border and of course in Eastleigh and other urban centres are specially called upon to guard the nation known as Kenya from the infiltration of relatives with ill intentions and the government of Kenya is by default charged with working with these communities to ensure this special duty is streamlined, in accordance with the rule of law; both local,international and natural justice.
We need credible administrative structures to look back into our own homesteads and backyards and identify characters that don't go along with our national principles of justice and peace. Communities breed criminals and terrorists and these communities at one time or another become victims of their own creatures. When these communities become too forgiving they are bound to meet the forces mandated to enforce law and order in one time or another. When this happens, it is not right to feel targeted or victimized as a community. They are simply being reminded to be more serious about their communal responsibilities and obligations. Community responsibility demands that at the local level, we acknowledge that there are those among us who will not batt an eye to do us harm to have their way. It is our responsibility to either work towards turning these elements into responsible citizens or simply assisting the security forces in apprehending them-be they our sons or daughters.
When one sees something going wrong and raises voice against it, that is responsibility and the end-sum of this in a national scale is real, tangible tranquility. State responsibility and culpability in our present quagmire is the deep rooted corruption and general neglect compounded by the ineptitude of our state organs- in all sectors. For too long our civil service departments, security forces, law enforcement have been used by the officials charged with running them as cash cows, minting presses rolling out national economy into pockets of individuals. While they are busy doing these, our borders have become as porous as nets. It has become easier for a foreigner to acquire national identification documents than for a native to do so.
We,(government and governed) are all culpable in the ills affecting our nationhood and though the governemnt takes the golden measure of this blame, we need to pull together to salvage the situation. Government needs to stay on target to root out all insecurity-terrorist or criminal driven and it needs to do so in accordance with the rule of law, it needs to enhance the structures that maintain and enforce the security of all its citizens no matter what their descent is- minority or majority in demographics. Government should provide the conducive environment for ethnic communities to live together in harmony in diverse customs and traditions- such traditions repugnant to the rule of law like cattle rustling and counter raids should be condemned by all and eradicated. We the people need to critic government on its negligence and offer positive reinforcement where necessary instead of just criticising without offering credible solutions. We are in this fight together. Ni sisi dhidi yao.
Thursday, April 3, 2014
Ujaluo utaua wajaluo and Ukenya uta-tuua Sote?
I still believe the Kenyan approach to terrorism and general crime is outdated. We need a radical shift in the manner of force's recruitment. The metamorphosed nature of crime and terror tactics demand the recruiters spend more time in institutions of higher learning than watching candidates running and doing all sorts of physical gymnastics to select the recruits. There's need to up the ante as the criminal is more apt to stalk, hit and run in cyber space than on the ground so the relevant skills needed have drastically changed. Finally the need to 'radicalise' our agents by giving them appropriate respect and recognition- humane terms and conditions of service, pay and other related benefits, then demanding professionalism from them.
In tandem with the security forces', other organs of state like the regulators of the communication sector, the immigration department, the registrar of persons, the local administration, grass-root structures like estate committees, all the way to the landlord and the tenant seeking a room-mate to demand transparency and accountability. A simple act of allowing an unregistered sim card to be used, a bribe to a clerk that ends in an ID made for unknown individual, a room leased out to an unknown individual, a car sold to an individual just because they did not bargain and paid in cash could end in a mass murder of innocent Kenyans- including those that played a part in the chain of events that led to the detonation of a bomb.
In short, all persons, to a degree are charged with the general status of security or insecurity and it is high time the government took up the responsibility of sensitising all to this fact. The citizens need to be educated on what their acts or omissions could result in and they need to see culpable persons in the government agencies disciplined for acts or omissions committed in offices that are charged with providing honest services to Kenyans- if corrupt officers were trooped to courts the way 'alco-blow' or police swoop victims are being done, charged and sentenced appropriately, it is my opinion this would go a long way in raising our national morale. Let us not continue reading of officers just being reshuffled, transferred or laid off after shoddy deals are uncovered. Most of these are criminals and should be charged in courts of law. Impunity, corruption, insecurity are all intertwined and each begets the other back and forth and should all be uprooted together.
In tandem with the security forces', other organs of state like the regulators of the communication sector, the immigration department, the registrar of persons, the local administration, grass-root structures like estate committees, all the way to the landlord and the tenant seeking a room-mate to demand transparency and accountability. A simple act of allowing an unregistered sim card to be used, a bribe to a clerk that ends in an ID made for unknown individual, a room leased out to an unknown individual, a car sold to an individual just because they did not bargain and paid in cash could end in a mass murder of innocent Kenyans- including those that played a part in the chain of events that led to the detonation of a bomb.
In short, all persons, to a degree are charged with the general status of security or insecurity and it is high time the government took up the responsibility of sensitising all to this fact. The citizens need to be educated on what their acts or omissions could result in and they need to see culpable persons in the government agencies disciplined for acts or omissions committed in offices that are charged with providing honest services to Kenyans- if corrupt officers were trooped to courts the way 'alco-blow' or police swoop victims are being done, charged and sentenced appropriately, it is my opinion this would go a long way in raising our national morale. Let us not continue reading of officers just being reshuffled, transferred or laid off after shoddy deals are uncovered. Most of these are criminals and should be charged in courts of law. Impunity, corruption, insecurity are all intertwined and each begets the other back and forth and should all be uprooted together.
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
Nani Mwizi?
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Uhuru plans crackdown on corrupt officials <a href="http://t.co/B9c6clH4Uh">http://t.co/B9c6clH4Uh</a> another wording for promises we've heard in the past??</p>— Pursta (@Pursta) <a href="https://twitter.com/Pursta/statuses/433518806804074496">February 12, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Uhuru plans crackdown on corrupt officials <a href="http://t.co/B9c6clH4Uh">http://t.co/B9c6clH4Uh</a> another wording for promises we've heard in the past??</p>— Pursta (@Pursta) <a href="https://twitter.com/Pursta/statuses/433518806804074496">February 12, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
It is very frustrating to see a popularly elected duo like the Kenyan presidency behaving so 'defeated' by criminal cartels and their own junior staffers!
How untouchable are these individuals incubating their heinous deeds in government offices and in deed, of all places, The State House?
Kenyans deserve better than just 'whimperings of weak threats' from the executive. We need action!
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Uhuru plans crackdown on corrupt officials <a href="http://t.co/B9c6clH4Uh">http://t.co/B9c6clH4Uh</a> another wording for promises we've heard in the past??</p>— Pursta (@Pursta) <a href="https://twitter.com/Pursta/statuses/433518806804074496">February 12, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
It is very frustrating to see a popularly elected duo like the Kenyan presidency behaving so 'defeated' by criminal cartels and their own junior staffers!
How untouchable are these individuals incubating their heinous deeds in government offices and in deed, of all places, The State House?
Kenyans deserve better than just 'whimperings of weak threats' from the executive. We need action!
Monday, December 30, 2013
Parting Shots, 2013
New dawn for Kenya happened this year and with it came new expectations or are we still striving to achieve that has been elusive these past fifty years?
The youngest heads of state, in our history, were elected just as the nation was unwrapping a new constitutional dispensation and with the double offering, the nation started with a heightened sense of optimism. In the past fifty years we have shown disdain and mistrust of our electoral processes and the last one we held was no different. It left nearly half the population feeling that all was not well and I guess that is the way with all competitive scenarios where a winner and loser have to be declared. None the less, we have to work hard and improve some simple systems that let us down- like electronic data transmission. This in a region that prides itself of being the in the vanguard of mobile transactions in the whole world.
When we first raised the national flag fifty years ago we aimed at eradicating poverty, disease and ignorance. As soon as the flag started flapping in the winds of hope, jubilation and expectation, we lapsed back into complacency and learnt to live with these three yokes round our necks. Fifty years down the line, we are still treading on the wine-press with them and other serious ones added onto our necks. We have added, among others; corruption, ethnic mistrust, social imbalance, and generalized ineptitude in affairs of state. This time around our huddles are higher and too close together- we have a different constitutional format with new aspects to be implemented, tested, evaluated, modified, implemented again and so on. The room for error and failure is wide and expansive but the spirit of benevolence which is encompassed by the whole nation militates and mitigates for success. Let us all ride this wave optimism for the sake of us, Kenya.
Needed are whistle blowers and mandatory reporters to keep the powers that be on their toes. The likes of Assange of the wikileaks fame, the gentleman of ‘Transparency International’ of the “Our Turn To Eat” fame, have always come under criticism which most of the times have been wrong. Millions of innocent people have suffered through the years because of unethical, questionable and many times criminal activities by people in power and others placed in positions of public service. Like these whistle-blowers, we need to be bold and balanced and call out our own who go astray. We need to acknowledge that we are the very people who elect the corrupt politicians, we are the the ones who suffer when the politicians only focus on their own selfish needs in parliament- like inflating the government wage bill or meddling with devolution of resources. We have broken our own record (money value) of national intrigues for three administrations in only nine months of Jubilee reign. We need us (whistle blowers) more than ever.
There is need to de-link the day-to-day running of state affairs from the politics of the day. Politicians are contract personnel, contracted only for a period while state administration is an on-going, operation that stops at nothing, be it elections or high water. National development is part of administration and not a politician's project. Contracts entered into for developmental projects ought to be independent of the political powers that be, they ought to be guided by the supreme law of the land and not the whims of some politician who could be as temporary as an electoral period. It is simply disgusting to read of power plays within the administrative corridors between big companies fighting to position themselves for lucrative projects that may have already been assigned to other companies that get sidelined when we change our elected politicians.
A look at the Kenya Railways, failed to manage its business,at a time when it had a near monopoly in the freight haulage sector, as much as this may have been the doing of a different quasi-criminal cartel in a different political outfit, fact remains that this corporation has been abused once and the sudden 're-animation' of a de-facto 'transportation ghost', resurfacing to dip its bonny fingers into the public coffers for a grab of several hundred billions of shillings is simply stinky. A derelict cash-cow that has been re-invented to provide a conduit for more asset-stripping?
So, how come the outfit that ran on generational change, youth recognition and ‘kubadilisha namna ya uongozi’ platform cannot find new blood to fill the state parastatals’ chief officers? They started with hiccups at the get-go when they recycled some die-hard politicians into the supposedly technocratic government ministries and nine months down the line, they are fetching them from retirement. The world over, politicians have the unwritten code of conduct of rewarding loyalty with all sorts of freebies and mostly it’s positions of influence that is dished out. This however doesn’t make it right and it is my humble submission that if they had to do this, then they should have employed some sort ‘sophistication’. We are witnessing a lot of ‘analog-ness’ in a supposedly ‘digital’ outfit. I put it that the group that most needs to be rewarded is the rank and file voter and the only way to reward them is being- or being seen to be- sensitive to their wishes. However difficult it is to please the masses, don’t ignore the wisdom of the masses. Wanjiku and Otonglo just need to be assured that they are being listened to.
The media has been put on the pedestal and found wanting. Though they rank high in the public list of trusted entities, they are still very wanting. They still churn out half investigative and speculative news leaving the consumer to do their own analysis- in these categories, omit ‘Jicho Pevu’ and a few others. Anchors and reporters never seek opinion from ‘experts’ or ‘analysts’ from specific fields but instead fall for the loudest or most ‘outlandish’ by-stander or spectator around for a description of the events, the ignorance of the interviewee notwithstanding. One recently explained how a bus collided with a truck, he had the details up to the point where he had the ‘verbal’ chalk outline of the vehicles involved - ‘lori ikapinduka ikachora saba’…This accident had occurred at an isolated section of the highway and in the dead of the night. And why don’t they read the items in a soft naturally flowing tone, without necessarily having to emphasize a syllable or a word here and there? We would still believe them?
The clergy? Well, these were mostly missing in action.
As we discussed and promulgated the present constitution, the feeling was right and the spirits were high. Kenyans had finally taken the opportunity to own their own destiny. They had finally triumphed in the second liberation. This year ends however, with dark clouds hanging above us, strong hurricane winds blowing in our direction and streaks of lightning lighting the fearful skies. Signs of a people just about to be overrun by phantoms they have created themselves. We are so helpless against our own politicians that they have no motivation whatsoever to consider our plight. We have to grab Kenya back from them. We need to steer our nation in our direction of choosing. We should be holding the steering wheel or the rudder of this vessel Kenya.
The youngest heads of state, in our history, were elected just as the nation was unwrapping a new constitutional dispensation and with the double offering, the nation started with a heightened sense of optimism. In the past fifty years we have shown disdain and mistrust of our electoral processes and the last one we held was no different. It left nearly half the population feeling that all was not well and I guess that is the way with all competitive scenarios where a winner and loser have to be declared. None the less, we have to work hard and improve some simple systems that let us down- like electronic data transmission. This in a region that prides itself of being the in the vanguard of mobile transactions in the whole world.
When we first raised the national flag fifty years ago we aimed at eradicating poverty, disease and ignorance. As soon as the flag started flapping in the winds of hope, jubilation and expectation, we lapsed back into complacency and learnt to live with these three yokes round our necks. Fifty years down the line, we are still treading on the wine-press with them and other serious ones added onto our necks. We have added, among others; corruption, ethnic mistrust, social imbalance, and generalized ineptitude in affairs of state. This time around our huddles are higher and too close together- we have a different constitutional format with new aspects to be implemented, tested, evaluated, modified, implemented again and so on. The room for error and failure is wide and expansive but the spirit of benevolence which is encompassed by the whole nation militates and mitigates for success. Let us all ride this wave optimism for the sake of us, Kenya.
Needed are whistle blowers and mandatory reporters to keep the powers that be on their toes. The likes of Assange of the wikileaks fame, the gentleman of ‘Transparency International’ of the “Our Turn To Eat” fame, have always come under criticism which most of the times have been wrong. Millions of innocent people have suffered through the years because of unethical, questionable and many times criminal activities by people in power and others placed in positions of public service. Like these whistle-blowers, we need to be bold and balanced and call out our own who go astray. We need to acknowledge that we are the very people who elect the corrupt politicians, we are the the ones who suffer when the politicians only focus on their own selfish needs in parliament- like inflating the government wage bill or meddling with devolution of resources. We have broken our own record (money value) of national intrigues for three administrations in only nine months of Jubilee reign. We need us (whistle blowers) more than ever.
There is need to de-link the day-to-day running of state affairs from the politics of the day. Politicians are contract personnel, contracted only for a period while state administration is an on-going, operation that stops at nothing, be it elections or high water. National development is part of administration and not a politician's project. Contracts entered into for developmental projects ought to be independent of the political powers that be, they ought to be guided by the supreme law of the land and not the whims of some politician who could be as temporary as an electoral period. It is simply disgusting to read of power plays within the administrative corridors between big companies fighting to position themselves for lucrative projects that may have already been assigned to other companies that get sidelined when we change our elected politicians.
A look at the Kenya Railways, failed to manage its business,at a time when it had a near monopoly in the freight haulage sector, as much as this may have been the doing of a different quasi-criminal cartel in a different political outfit, fact remains that this corporation has been abused once and the sudden 're-animation' of a de-facto 'transportation ghost', resurfacing to dip its bonny fingers into the public coffers for a grab of several hundred billions of shillings is simply stinky. A derelict cash-cow that has been re-invented to provide a conduit for more asset-stripping?
So, how come the outfit that ran on generational change, youth recognition and ‘kubadilisha namna ya uongozi’ platform cannot find new blood to fill the state parastatals’ chief officers? They started with hiccups at the get-go when they recycled some die-hard politicians into the supposedly technocratic government ministries and nine months down the line, they are fetching them from retirement. The world over, politicians have the unwritten code of conduct of rewarding loyalty with all sorts of freebies and mostly it’s positions of influence that is dished out. This however doesn’t make it right and it is my humble submission that if they had to do this, then they should have employed some sort ‘sophistication’. We are witnessing a lot of ‘analog-ness’ in a supposedly ‘digital’ outfit. I put it that the group that most needs to be rewarded is the rank and file voter and the only way to reward them is being- or being seen to be- sensitive to their wishes. However difficult it is to please the masses, don’t ignore the wisdom of the masses. Wanjiku and Otonglo just need to be assured that they are being listened to.
The media has been put on the pedestal and found wanting. Though they rank high in the public list of trusted entities, they are still very wanting. They still churn out half investigative and speculative news leaving the consumer to do their own analysis- in these categories, omit ‘Jicho Pevu’ and a few others. Anchors and reporters never seek opinion from ‘experts’ or ‘analysts’ from specific fields but instead fall for the loudest or most ‘outlandish’ by-stander or spectator around for a description of the events, the ignorance of the interviewee notwithstanding. One recently explained how a bus collided with a truck, he had the details up to the point where he had the ‘verbal’ chalk outline of the vehicles involved - ‘lori ikapinduka ikachora saba’…This accident had occurred at an isolated section of the highway and in the dead of the night. And why don’t they read the items in a soft naturally flowing tone, without necessarily having to emphasize a syllable or a word here and there? We would still believe them?
The clergy? Well, these were mostly missing in action.
As we discussed and promulgated the present constitution, the feeling was right and the spirits were high. Kenyans had finally taken the opportunity to own their own destiny. They had finally triumphed in the second liberation. This year ends however, with dark clouds hanging above us, strong hurricane winds blowing in our direction and streaks of lightning lighting the fearful skies. Signs of a people just about to be overrun by phantoms they have created themselves. We are so helpless against our own politicians that they have no motivation whatsoever to consider our plight. We have to grab Kenya back from them. We need to steer our nation in our direction of choosing. We should be holding the steering wheel or the rudder of this vessel Kenya.
Monday, October 21, 2013
Salvage Army?...National Shame.
Is this a reflection of our national image? This is simply how badly we have fallen! Those were not our galant soldiers? So many questions un-answered! So much explaining yet to be done. We bleed more from these than from the wounds inflicted by the four or so wayward boys who held up Westgate mall. Tusijindanganye!
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
Who's To Blame?
Reading Kenya's pleas to the rest of the world to join her in the war against terrorism, one would be tempted to think that the war has just begun and that Kenya is the frontline. This statement has a part which is true and one which is erroneous.
Kenya is smarting from the recent attack in Westlands and was rudely reminded about the 1998 attack in Nairobi. This recent episode has particularly reflected quite badly against Kenya's reaction to acts of terror; the security agencies have come out as a bunch of blundering, fumbling and inefficient outfits, quick to ignore intelligence on criminal activity only to rush to the site of an attack and mess up the clues and evidence. After the attack in Westlands, unsubstantiated reports indicate that at least one of the attackers walked out of the mall among the rescued civilians and walked away despite the warnings from one of the survivors who saw the terrorist change his clothes to mingle with the victims.
Without being deliberately sub judice- there is a parliamentary inquiry on the recent attack going on- information in the public domain indicate that information as credible as from a Senator had been passed on to the relevant agencies regarding the attack long before it happened. What they did about it, we might never know.
In the recent past, criminal activities in Kenya, both in the rural and urban areas have taken a metamorphosis that ought to have woken the security agencies to the dangers and the face of the terrorist. Ordinary Kenyans now know the look of a grenade, they know the sound of one exploding, high powered guns, improvised explosive devices, widespread attacks on crowds without theft of property-these have become the calling card of the terrorist today. The police have witnessed this metamorphosis but have remained rooted in the past methods of crime detection and fighting, the immigration department have gone on their duties without regard to the dangers they pose the whole country. It is an open secret that foreigners (especially those with questionable backgrounds) find it easier to acquire identity documents (birth certificates, IDs or passports) than indigenous Kenyans. Our ports of entry and departure have primarily been charged with stopping Kenyans from venturing out of Kenya and welcoming all and sundry (criminal or otherwise, legal or illegal) into and out of Kenya. Criminals find Kenya a very suitable hub to connect to their destinations. Others find it convenient to transform themselves into Kenyans then move on to other countries.
Attacks in the public places, in churches and on police stations had increased but the security agencies did not seem to notice any difference. They did not change their tact and kept on the age-old pleas for the public to surrender any arms they could be harboring. They offered and kept extending amnesty periods. They refused to acknowledge that the animal they had been hunting had changed and that they were now the prey. Pronouncements from militant groups especially after operation 'Linda Nchi' did not seem to be related to the proliferation of military style grenade attacks carried out haphazardly all over the country.
When the rest of the world was fighting the war against terrorism, Kenya slept. Now, that slumber has catapulted us to the frontline of that war and we are asking the world to fight with us! We need to stay awake, work hard to catch up with the rest of the world in this war. We need to change our national psyche and start being proud of our nationality, to guard and jealously protect it. We need to develop and nurture national accountability-relevant agencies need to have relevant information in their domains. The government needs to streamline all databases for smooth information flow, correlation of such information as ID card, passport and electors registries, PIN cards, registries of persons, motor vehicles, companies, etc just to name a few could so easily be synchronized especially due to the advanced information technology available today. Just a casual monitoring of such databases could deter acts harmful to our national security, but there is a catch here: these databases have to be there, and be accurate. This is why all players have to be accountable. The citizen needs to be registered, ID card obtained, property legally registered, residence known, etc. None of us needs to relax and it is noteworthy to remark that organization of this information could help steer national development. We keep re-tarmacking and rehabilitating old narrow roads and call them highways, instead of widening them and adding more lanes or restructuring them into dual carriage ways in synchrony with the increase in heavy large vehicle traffic on our roads-and then we go about passing blame after killer traffic accidents.
A bribe at the local registrar of persons office affords a terrorist an ID card and the said criminal sets up shop in your neighbourhood because the land-lord did not verify the source of cash that was offered for long-term lease without a bargain, and the house next door becomes a bomb or munitions factory. Your brother leases or sells a vehicle to terrorists unknowingly because they are able to pay for it dearly without a bargain. Without being patronising or seeming to praise things American, one cannot show up at a bank in the US with large amounts of cash to deposit without raising questions from the bank as to the source of the cash. Accountability is very vital to national security, and it starts from the individual all the way to government. As we go about looking for who blame for our failures, it would be prudent to look in the mirror and throw what blame is due to the person looking at you. The security agencies failed, yes, but the essence of their failure could be traced back to ourselves. When the president demands that the world ought to join Kenya, we need to realize that the world we are asking to join us has been awake and fighting terrorism all along, as we dozed off on the job. We played a role in frustrating their efforts by our slumber, we nurtured terrorism by our corruption, government ineptitude and official criminal impunity. We need to go to confession and seek our penance, then join the rest of the world.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)