Yes, Kenyans are more enlightened nowadays

Regarding political deception, I concur with Deputy President William Ruto’s observation: “There is a shortage of wajinga (fools) in Kenya.”

The tragedy is that in the same breath those words were uttered at a rally in Eldama Ravine, Baringo County, on Saturday last week, a falsehood was told that takes Kenyans for fools.
Straight-faced, Ruto told the gathering that previous administrations “took huge loans to pay off debts from the Goldenberg and Anglo-Leasing scams”.

The cheek of it was astounding and Ruto should be reminded it was President Uhuru Kenyatta who, in May 2014, authorised the payment of Sh1.4 billion to Anglo Leasing.

Uhuru argued it was aimed at avoiding international sanctions, especially considering the Government had mooted the $2.8 billion (Sh280 billion) Eurobond idea. History cannot be altered.

The National Super Alliance’s announcement that it would set up a tallying centre also had Ruto irked, terming it unconstitutional.

At the same meeting, Water and Irrigation Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa contended such a move would give rise to violence.

Nevertheless, Jubilee leaders have spared no effort to prove constitutionalism is relative.

Tyranny of numbers

While drafters of the Constitution sought to insulate the Inspector General of Police from the Executive by giving the office security of tenure, Jubilee MPs alone changed that provision unconstitutionally.

Attempts to take away freedoms of expression, association and to muzzle the media through suspect legislation like the Security Laws (Amendment) Bill 2014 were unconstitutional.

Extra-judicial killings and disappearances for which the police have been repeatedly accused by the civil society in their periodic reports are unconstitutional.

The Constitution is clear Cabinet secretaries must remain apolitical, yet we see Mwangi Kiunjuri, Eugene Wamalwa, Sicily Kariuki, Joseph Nkaissery and Fred Matiang’i engage in campaigns for Jubilee without repercussions.

When Ruto gave the ‘shoot to kill’ order in the banditry-hit North Rift area, he was acting unconstitutionally. Thus, if anyone must preach water, they shouldn’t drink wine.
The North Rift situation is intriguing.

It is inconceivable that a combination of regular police, the General Service Unit and now Kenya Defence Force cannot suppress a handful of half-naked, illiterate bandits. A lot is not adding up.

People continue to die yet the miscreants are laughing themselves silly in some hideout. Is it possible that a few highly placed individuals are pulling a fast one on us to facilitate the declaration of a state of emergency, maybe even have elections postponed?
Mandera is under a curfew. Lamu, as a friend highly versed in security matters reminded me, is in a lockdown situation. The North Rift is in line for a curfew if the present trajectory of events obtains. A military undertaking akin to the 1984 Pokot Operation, ostensibly to recover firearms, is in the offing.

It would help to recall the Pokot operation was jointly carried out by the Uganda National Liberation Army under the Command of Captain Okwaro and the Kenya Army under the command of Major Joseph Nkaissery. The operation was nicknamed ‘Nyundo” and it was vehemently condemned for its human rights violations. Today, as the North Rift falters, Joseph Nkaissery is the Cabinet Secretary for Internal Security and Coordination of National Government, but more interested in Uhuru’s re-election.

After naming the most dangerous areas in the North Rift weeks ago, Nkaissery appears to have taken a sabbatical. While he is expected to be as visible, energetic and commanding as he was during the Oppositions “every Monday siege” on Anniversary Towers, he has taken a back seat over the atrocities in the North Rift. The Executive appears to have taken charge. Concerns that NASA’s tallying centre could cause chaos are valid to a point. The question is; how did we get there?

Isn’t it because successive electoral bodies have acted at the behest of the incumbent Government; proof being the admission by the late ECK chief Samwel Kivuitu, that he did not know who the victor in the 2007 elections was? Didn’t the Judge Johann Kriegler commission report point out it was impossible to say who was the clear winner in 2007?

The interest Jubilee has over time shown in the electoral body; hanging onto the Isaack Hassan-led team, the forced passage of the Electoral laws 2016 and obvious uncertainty and disorganisation at IEBC, point to the possibility of elections that will be anything but transparent and credible.

Taking out insurance against an opponent who has all the advantages may not be such a bad idea.

In Africa, there is an entrenched belief, debunked by examples in The Gambia and Ghana, that incumbents don’t lose elections.

And when President Uhuru Kenyatta stands on the podium to proclaim, “If they did not beat us when we were not in government, how can they when we are the government?” sends the wrong message.

Mr Chagema is a correspondent at The Standard. [email protected]