Wednesday, May 23, 2007
NATIONAL INSECURITY
We are a nation under siege. The gruesome killing and decapitation of innocent Kenyans is not only barbaric and ghastly but it also sends some ominous signals about the collapse of security system in the country. These murders are becoming too frequent and too macabre to be the works of 'normal criminals'.
The execution style beheadings and dismemberment of the victims is symbolic of sending alarms, fear, despondency and submission to the populace. The people are being cowed and there is no apparent help from the law enforcers. Our police force is under siege, with their numbers being decimated daily by the same criminals they are chasing. Their response is to execute innocent tailors whose only crime is being law abiding and carrying legitimate business in crime prone areas. Whether these killers are mungiki or not, it does not matter, the bottom line is heinous crimes have been committed, innocent Kenyans have been massacred, beheaded, mutilated and fed to the dogs, policemen have been killed in line of duty, and we have not had these criminal apprehended and taken to court.
We have killers and their paymasters on the loose. People do not just become demented over night and start chopping off others heads without cause. Somebody is instigating this mayhem. Somebody is planning, supporting, encouraging and perhaps benefiting now or in future from this. It is just too systematic to be random. I do not claim monopoly of this theory, I am not a trained crime buster but I do not need to have gone to Kiganjo to come to these conclusions. I am sure the police must have come to the same conclusions. Let us see action, let us have the local leaders being utilised in the search for these criminals. Somebody knows these criminals, somebody feeds them breakfast, lunch and dinner, somebody washes their bloody clothes after they commit these crimes. Somebody sees them sleep the whole day and go to work at night, somebody sees them spend money without an apparent job. Somebody has a hunch about somebody else, yet no one comes forward with information. Perhaps we are too numbed, too afraid to speak. This is what the criminals want, the society we live in has been too inured and anesthetized to become my brothers keeper.
The people trust their government to protect them. From Mt Elgon to Karuri, Muranga to Kiambu, even in the city itself, tax payers deserve a better deal. Calling for calm and no retaliation is not the final solution, if no positive results are forthcoming, if the police will not defend the people, then the people will defend themselves and the results will not be pleasant. How many must die before drastic actions are taken. It is no weakness admitting your own weakness. Desperate time require desperate measures, these are desperate times. If the government is weak in solving crisis after crisis, murder after murder, call for help, this is no shame, there are foreigners more schooled in this yet we cling on to our myths of superiority while our people get killed daily and no convictions are obtained in courts. Get help and learn from it and move on.
Protecting the citizenry should be paramount. When people are insecure they cannot thrive. The government must come out firm and decisive, there should be no compromise. Those sympathetic to the criminals and those harboring them or bank rolling them should face the law. Some of those in the present government were ruthless in law enforcement during the Mau Mau war, why they cannot use the same decisiveness and wrath beats logic. The police should get to the root of these criminal activities that sprout every election year. They have the manpower, they claim to be the best, what is stopping them from getting the results. Is someone blocking their way? We do not want the parades of the suspects, we want the convictions of the criminals, that way we will know they are safely behind bars and we can continue our work in peace.
Mr. president, if you cannot twirl the whip and check this mayhem, then the people might turn and give it to someone else who can. Save your job.
The execution style beheadings and dismemberment of the victims is symbolic of sending alarms, fear, despondency and submission to the populace. The people are being cowed and there is no apparent help from the law enforcers. Our police force is under siege, with their numbers being decimated daily by the same criminals they are chasing. Their response is to execute innocent tailors whose only crime is being law abiding and carrying legitimate business in crime prone areas. Whether these killers are mungiki or not, it does not matter, the bottom line is heinous crimes have been committed, innocent Kenyans have been massacred, beheaded, mutilated and fed to the dogs, policemen have been killed in line of duty, and we have not had these criminal apprehended and taken to court.
We have killers and their paymasters on the loose. People do not just become demented over night and start chopping off others heads without cause. Somebody is instigating this mayhem. Somebody is planning, supporting, encouraging and perhaps benefiting now or in future from this. It is just too systematic to be random. I do not claim monopoly of this theory, I am not a trained crime buster but I do not need to have gone to Kiganjo to come to these conclusions. I am sure the police must have come to the same conclusions. Let us see action, let us have the local leaders being utilised in the search for these criminals. Somebody knows these criminals, somebody feeds them breakfast, lunch and dinner, somebody washes their bloody clothes after they commit these crimes. Somebody sees them sleep the whole day and go to work at night, somebody sees them spend money without an apparent job. Somebody has a hunch about somebody else, yet no one comes forward with information. Perhaps we are too numbed, too afraid to speak. This is what the criminals want, the society we live in has been too inured and anesthetized to become my brothers keeper.
The people trust their government to protect them. From Mt Elgon to Karuri, Muranga to Kiambu, even in the city itself, tax payers deserve a better deal. Calling for calm and no retaliation is not the final solution, if no positive results are forthcoming, if the police will not defend the people, then the people will defend themselves and the results will not be pleasant. How many must die before drastic actions are taken. It is no weakness admitting your own weakness. Desperate time require desperate measures, these are desperate times. If the government is weak in solving crisis after crisis, murder after murder, call for help, this is no shame, there are foreigners more schooled in this yet we cling on to our myths of superiority while our people get killed daily and no convictions are obtained in courts. Get help and learn from it and move on.
Protecting the citizenry should be paramount. When people are insecure they cannot thrive. The government must come out firm and decisive, there should be no compromise. Those sympathetic to the criminals and those harboring them or bank rolling them should face the law. Some of those in the present government were ruthless in law enforcement during the Mau Mau war, why they cannot use the same decisiveness and wrath beats logic. The police should get to the root of these criminal activities that sprout every election year. They have the manpower, they claim to be the best, what is stopping them from getting the results. Is someone blocking their way? We do not want the parades of the suspects, we want the convictions of the criminals, that way we will know they are safely behind bars and we can continue our work in peace.
Mr. president, if you cannot twirl the whip and check this mayhem, then the people might turn and give it to someone else who can. Save your job.
