Kenya wont move forward until the bitter truth is told

Story by DONALD KIPKORIR
Publication Date: 2/2/2008

Former UN chief Kofi Annan has the support of Kenyans in his quest for a way out of the national crisis. But he must know that we will not countenance Zimbabwe-like AU-sponsored mediation which has been dancing on the spot as Mr Robert Mugabe presides over the annihilation of his country.

A police officer charges at a rioter at Bondeni in Mombasa. Police should bear in mind that their duty is to maintain law and order and not to kill. Photo/FILE
Zimbabwe, once a jewel of Africa, now has 3 million refugees in South Africa and 1 million in England yet Mr Thabo Mbeki is still massaging the fraudulent ego of Comrade Bob! Annan must not take us the same road and ought to know that we will not allow him.

He must play his role of a mediator knowing that his fidelity and duty is to the people of Kenya who have genuine grievances arising from a disputed presidential election and historical injustices.

The time for euphemism is over. We leave it to court jesters like Eric Kiraithe and Alfred Mutua to tell the emperor that he is dressed in the finest clothes when the opposite is true.

Finest clothes

Unlike the sycophants of Emperor Nero who joined him in dancing as Rome burnt to the ground in 64 AD or those who applauded Empress Marie Antoinette in telling Parisians in 1789 to eat cake when they couldn’t afford bread, we will not lie to President Kibaki that all is well.

Mainstream American media is brutally honest and that is why America is the richest and most powerful empire ever. The current edition of Newsweek in its cover article, calls George W. Bush’s presidency the American tragedy and that he is an idiot comparable to an American president called Grover Cleveland who historians can’t even remember.

The media in Kenya must play their role of being harbinger of truth and not play a partisan role.

With the same honesty, we must tell President Kibaki that after Mr Samuel Kivuitu declared him winner in controversial circumstances on December 30, 2007, he has decided to retreat to State House and let the country burn.

He didn’t take the oath of office to be giving us taped messages aired through KBC or unsigned statements by the PPS. He seems to have forgotten that a president is demanded of him to offer national leadership, administration, management, and as George W. Bush correctly stated, he must be the decider. In 1960s America, the civil rights movement was being twin-pronged in its leadership by radical and militant Malcolm X on one part, and the other by evangelical Martin Luther King. Blacks wanted to correct historical injustices that had lasted centuries, and the privileged ruling white clans stood in the way.

President John F. Kennedy, who has since been sainted, never trusted these black movements. In 1963, King vowed to organise a million-man march to Washington for blacks to demand their rights to Kennedy’s protestations. When the march was on, no gun was fired and no tear gas was thrown and as they say, the rest is history. The lesson? Presidents must never stand in the way of history and people’s rights for correctional justice.

As we search for solutions, it is time we give names, faces and identity to people killing and being killed. It is a tragedy when people are killed because the police suspect they were going to burn property, and it is a catastrophe when we shy from identifying the names and tribes of all the protagonists and victims.

Part of Europe wanted to behave the same way on the killings of Jews until states legislated to make denial a crime. Do we want legislation to force us to do the same? We cannot move on till we face the brutal truth as it is.

The death of any Kenyan, whether Kikuyu, Kalenjin, Luo or Luhya carries the same weight. No tribe is superior or has monopoly of political hegemony.

The police have abdicated their cardinal duties and have allowed our country to follow the footsteps of Cote d’Ivorie and Lebanon. The police think they are an armed wing of PNU and cannot allow people allied to ODM to enjoy their constitutional rights or even mourn their dead! In the fullness of time, they must face the law for dereliction and abdication of their statutory duty.

The police need always to remember that they are regulated by the Police Act, Cap 84 and no other law in respect of their use of arms. The law does not provide for use of lethal force to disperse demonstrations or protect property. In only three instances are they allowed to use force — to stop escapees from lawful custody, those aiding the escapees and those resisting arrest. However, in these instances, the police must give clear and unequivocal warning that they intend to use force.

In March, 2005 and November, 2007, Paris suburbs went up in flames, thousands of motor vehicles were burnt, shops and libraries were destroyed, and 77 policemen injured. The financial and political costs on France arising from the riots were monumental and crippling, yet the police did not shoot one demonstrator!

When police realise that their duty is to maintain law and order and not to kill, Kenya will stand proud.

In addition to France, deaths of civilians or police caused by civil strife have not been recorded in decades in Europe and America. In Italy, when one policeman was killed by football hooligans, the country mourned and a national shake-up in the police force was ordered. In Kenya, the rupture will happen first before any police commissioner takes moral responsibility for lapses in the conduct of the police.

In the meantime, the army should remain in the barracks. Their intervention ought to be the last line of defence. Over 40 years ago, crooked and corrupt civilian leaders facing popular revolt in Lebanon, Turkey, Thailand and Pakistan invited the army to protect them and since then, all successive governments in these countries are answerable to the army, not the people. We may applaud the intervention by the army now but we must not be blind to history. The army should not open the doors of their barracks till our borders are breached or our State House has locked its gates when the country is burning. Those flying over in Naivasha, Nakuru and Eldoret must return to the barracks.

Likewise the Church in Kenya has no moral integrity to guide us. Church leaders have taken sides and are demanding that we maintain peace and move on. In the Old Testament and from the time when Cain killed Abel, Jehovah rejects sacrifices offered to Him and demands instead truth and justice, and in the New Testament, Jesus says that He is the way, the truth and the life. Let the Church take a break and listen to the Holy Spirit and not political spirits!

Customs and traditions

As the country grapples with the current crisis, perhaps Kenyans should ponder over some of the customs and traditions of conflicts. Indeed, we cannot bury our heads in the sand, when more than 1,000 people have been killed and no one is taking responsibility.

Such acts as killing non-combatants, defenceless persons, or those who have surrendered are outlawed. If any force is used, it must be humane and proportionate. The killings and burning of non-threatening women and children in conflict zones or of innocent passengers in PSV vehicles are totally and wholly out of order and criminal under local and international law.

That is why the Government has the ultimate responsibility of maintaining law and order. Under international law, a government bears legal responsibility for armed gangs operating within its borders. When normalcy finally returns, some people may have to answer for all that went wrong and that is the law.

Kenya deserves peace, not mere peace, but peace based on the truth, justice and equity.

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