Terrorism, a trans-national global phenomenon, has increased insecurity and forced people to adjust to new realities that include expecting security “searches” everywhere. Terrorists deliberately inflict terror to achieve purported political, economic, or spiritual ends. All terror attacks are psychologically designed to plant doubts about the state’s ability to protect citizens.
Kenya knows different manifestations of terrorism. It has suffered violent terrorism in the form of dramatic bombings and assorted attacks on religious, commercial, social, and educational entities. Currently, it appears to be reeling from counterfeit terrorism; terrorizing people through counterfeit popular consumer commodities that can lead to mass death or deformities.
With the rise of counterfeit terrorism in the midst of growing national despair, the search for possible ways out of the gloominess has intensified. As a result, different groups agonize over the origins of the despair and there appears to be consensus that the explanation is in a declining sense of ethics which leads to the glorification of immorality.
The decline is deep in the neglected institutions that have lost direction, and which the public used to revere. Religious institutions, for instance, tolerate destructive cults while leaders discredit themselves through unbecoming behavior.
Negative attitudes
These include intra and inter faith feuds, physical fights and insult exchanges in public over sadaka, encouraging followers to break the law for dubious political reasons, fleecing the institutions they should be looking after, and ending up in court, reportedly because of thievery or criminal recklessness.
On its part, the education system has many questions. These relate to turf warfare, negative attitudes and unethical expectations, deliberate lowering of standards and promotion of intellectual robotics, and discouragement of initiative and critical thinking.
In addition, judicial organs and elected/appointed leaders repeatedly disparage good behavior and let the public down. They all create environments in which corruption thrives and opens the path to the rise of counterfeit terrorism. Key institutions replete with corruption call for processes of generating new hope by restoring lost vigor and “soul” of the nation. The most critical of these are religious and the educational ones because they supposedly are at the centre of molding the nation.
Although both have lost standing and need attitudinal overhauls in order to regain credibility, it is the education sector that calls for special attention and strengthening. Restoring the prestige of “Mwalimu” and “lecturer” would help in the long term securing of national interests, particularly national security.
Kenya needs to recast its security strategy by placing education at the centre of new national security mind-frame. At present, the education system is conceptually weak; unable to make students internalize ethical behavior or duties and responsibilities of citizenship. Instead, they are daily exposed to glorification of corruption.
Unethical officialdom
This glorification opens the path to counterfeit terrorism in which the makers and importers of counterfeit consumer goods, with little sense of value for human life, find comfort in equally unethical officialdom. Thus, importing contaminated commodities is not coincidental.
There were some reforms in the lower educational levels but higher education lags behind. The university has lost direction, having embraced a “factory” mentality of churning out disinterested products called “graduates” holding papers labelled “degrees”, some of them counterfeit. It tends to be run by mechanical managers making “business” rather than intellectual demands on, and often limiting, technicians named “lecturers” or “professors”.
While many “technicians” are serious academics, there also are joyriders in the proliferating intellectual factories. The factory mentality at the universities encourages intellectual corruption that is conducive for creeping counterfeit terrorism.
It threatens security by contributing to loss of confidence in the education system and, in the long run, in all other sectors; religious, judicial, political leadership, media, and “private” which depend on strong ethical foundations in education. The loss of confidence implies inability to instill values and ethical behavior or offer coordinated education on the values, duties and obligations of citizenship.
Subsequently, the graduates have little attachment to other people and can thus easily fall into terrorism entrapment. Since counterfeit terrorism is a product of educational negligence, it needs countering through education attitude overhaul.
Prof Munene teaches history and international relations at USIU; machariamunene15@gmail.com
