Columnist personalised, trivialised issues of national import

By Eric Kiraithe

It is important that we use civil means to bring to a close the ramblings of your weekly Wednesday columnist John Gerezani, as they are pure bile-filled abuse, thinly veiled as commentary on law enforcement and reformatory institutions.

As a media commentator on strategic and operational issues touching on the policing, conflict management, rule of law and internal security, I have always guarded myself against the intellectual degradation that goes with opinion makers who are true to the wisdom of remaining on the path of ideas and events rather than veer into the more trampled trail of attacking individuals and crucifying personalities.

This is because focus on personalities allows prejudice, kills objectivity and reduces one to a gossiping hatemonger.

Editors will tell you that they know an opinion editorial contributor has reached his sell-by-date when they start wasting precious space discussing people.

Spreading malice against others is simply not an accepted genre in journalism.

Secondly, like any intellectual pursuit, serious journalism demands honesty and does not allow pseudonyms especially when the author is carrying out a campaign for public appointment and their only weapon is character assignation of their real or perceived rivals.

The Constitution of Kenya has allowed open competition for public appointments and those vying should declare their interest in good faith. Prof James ole Kiyiapi led the way by declaring interest in the highest office in the land while still a sitting civil servant.

Not that Gerezani’s camouflage is that effective. I know him and really sympathise with his bumpy ride in the civil service.

When we left university, Gerezani quickly became one of the blue-eyed boys of the Nyayo system and landed an appointment as a special District Officer. Like nature would have it, when things changed, there was no promotion to DC and he joined the most maligned career in Kenya.

settling old scores

True Gerezani worked hard, but some obscure posting again, interrupted the grand march to power and influence.

This former deputy service commander was again tempted to spread malice against colleagues and his devotion to duty and age considerations overshadowed a brilliant comeback.

I believe this was the point he declared himself a prisoner and adopted the name John Gerezani?

I have never understood a system that will deny an energetic, innovative and hardworking civil servant an opportunity to serve simply because he is not beyond a little malice (like the one that occasionally drives the Gerezani articles) and  sycophancy in their long career.

I am an admirer or Gerezani’s command of English language and fairly good inside knowledge of the police and prisons services.

However, I wish Gerezani would devote the word-space offered him with well researched, forward looking pieces. I’m not sure settling old scores and discrediting real or imagined competition will take the writer very far.

However much Gerezani may desire the appointment of an Inspector General of Police to be done immediately, why not wait, and when the time comes, throw the fight of his life.

Otherwise, the Gerezani pieces are quickly sliding into needless hate speech. Going by the calls, I received after the 30th May piece in The Standard, I also suspect Gerezani is also attracting the wrong kind of attention to himself.  However, I wish to briefly respond to a few salient issues he raised.

One: Policing is so contextual that the highest professional standards are those that meet local policing needs of communities. If this columnist is one those waiting to see British policemen in our streets then he is sorely mistaken.

There are cross-cutting tenets but no duplicates for social services. Please refer to our new training manuals and the new national police service laws.

Two: quite a number of us have made our mark. We have immortalised our experience in writing including the work in progress book on post-Independence management of strategic change in the Kenya Police and even scored A grades.

Three: when Gerezani appointed himself an analyst of my articles, did it ever occur to him that some of us write well researched articles, whose ideas borrow heavily from research in the rule of law, conflict management, political science, philosophy, security and criminology as they apply to our contemporary situation?

They are not campaign pieces to improve public approval ratings. So, how can you reduce great discourse to “Kiraithe-speak”?

Four: When the Commissioner of Police engages Kenyans on how to flush out and disable criminal gangs, he is not engaging in cheap propaganda.

He is discharging his professional mandate of mobilising the public for law and order. The Commissioner cannot afford such luxury as history will not judge his utterances and actions with the same measure as a bitter columnists. Neither the Commissioner, nor I wish to extend this debate from here on.

The writer is the Police Spokesperson.