Police airlift stunt not brilliant propaganda

The police are a symbol of law and order. When it’s said protesters overpowered and injured some to an extent that they had to be “airlifted” to Nairobi, it scares people. What are we supposed to think? That we have a country of bandits more vicious than the police, people who are frighteningly violent they can run the police out of town?

A Government that is supposed to ooze power was telling the whole world that it had been humiliated by citizens who had allegedly gone rogue in a peaceful protest. It is preposterous to aver 10 police officers were beaten up by protesters and had to be airlifted. And the Government even has the audacity to call other senior officials to hold a full ceremony to “receive the injured”.

And after that, they are not taken to Kenyatta National Hospital, the country’s largest referral hospital. Not even Forces Memorial, where policemen injured in battle go. They went to a relatively unknown hospital in a neighbourhood known for fantastic drinking dens. Granted, police fired live bullets at protesters. Three people died.

Some police officers were injured. Why did they have to be evacuated? If there was anarchy of such proportions as the Government wants us to believe, can someone explain how the police left behind a peaceful town?

Let me just say that it is not brilliant statecraft to show a police officer being humiliated by the people he is supposed to protect. That is a recipe for disaster. It breeds anarchy. People begin to imagine that they can beat up police officers and get away with it.

You don’t go around killing your own citizens and then turn around and cry wolf. You cannot just do that! You may try to spin your way into public sympathy, but these are lives. This is a country we are talking about. We love law and order.

And we don’t like it when you paint law-abiding citizens who simply got excited with the mob psychology as barbarians who maim police officers. This looks like one of those ill-conceived ploys to justify future lethal crackdowns. There’s political propaganda and then there’s statecraft.

You can play around with your partisan politics, but when it comes to statecraft, even those who didn’t vote for the Government in power deserve and have a legitimate expectation of protection from the same Government.

If you mess with statecraft, you mess with lives. People die. And it won’t matter what optics you try to reflect. You can’t kill them all. You have to leave some to bury the dead, and they won’t forget that pain. You switch on the television and you see a Member of Parliament, a representative of the people, speaking like a rogue Government operative.

I heard one say, “We have the police, we have teargas... we will deal with you!” It gives the impression that he, being a member of the ruling Jubilee coalition, has the power to command the independent office of the Inspector General Joseph Boinnet, to crush opposition supporters. It is not wise to allow politicians to claim power over the national police service as if the police are some kind of Government militia that can be unleashed on anyone who doesn’t toe the line.

I have a lot of respect for police officers. They are people’s parents, spouses, and children. They are human. They live stressful lives in cramped apartments, enduring demeaning orders, just to maintain law and order. 

When they wear that protective gear and look like robots, when they put on their work uniform, when they carry a gun, they are out to maintain law and order. They took an oath to do just that – protect life and property. When dealing with protests, the police are always walking a thin line.

But when politicians turn around and annex the police force, and then the whole State machinery acquiesces to that, it tells taxpaying civilians who support the Opposition that they are on their own.