Why we need more thinkers than political trouble-makers

Although Kenya appears to be in a manufactured crisis, it is actually doing well despite everything. This is in spite of the usual Euro diplomats issuing “advice” to Kenya either directly or through “regime change” seeking proxies. They often encourage pliable politicians and proxies to make it appear as if Kenya is collapsing. It is not.

In truth, there are serious people and state institutions looking after Kenya’s national interests. Among them are security organs and academics who study national interests as an intellectual calling.

The manufactured crisis appears intense partly because some critical institutions, such as the Supreme Court and the IEBC, became party to the crisis. But I digress.

Thinkers thinking

I spent time with serious Kenyan thinkers and I have no doubt that there will be no turmoil largely because of them. Being men and women of intellect, they spend time thinking and doing the right thing.

They are involved as commandants, directing staff, academics, and participants. Few such people would engage in behaviour that undermines national interests. I encountered them them in a symposium on how to counter violent extremism.

The combination of theoreticians and security practitioners in tackling, at policy level, a global phenomena that defy logic can be entertainingly challenging. Kipkurui Kibet has military experience and could talk of Kenya’s experience in Somalia and the need to re-examine approaches to its engagement.

Musumbayi Katumanga can be trusted to get into a theoretical flight on geographies of extremism the same way that Mustafa Ali would examine the meta-narratives of ideologies as they relate to Al Shabaab while Ochieng Kamudhayi goes deep into “epistemologies” and perceptions of reality.

And there is the rarely examined psycho-medical line to terrorism and extremism and so Consolata Mwangi and Makumi Mwagiru teamed up to examine youth radicalization from the psycho-medical angle. Exactly what is extremism? Is it linear or multifaceted in origin, and would this explain its elusiveness?  

Violent extremism, so argued IGAD man Simon Kinyanjui, aka Wa-Nyambura, is an upgraded name for out-dated “terrorism” which seemed to have lost its sexy appeal and terminological value. With more than ten years of fighting the unending global war on terror, there was geopolitical need to change language; violent extremism seemed like a good substitute for terrorism.

But the logic of the war did not change and it could not change because the war was ill-conceived from the beginning. Kenya is therefore caught up in the extremism derived from an ill-conceived foreign war.

So what happens when conflict arises between international expectations and national interests? Policy makers who subordinate national interests to the wishes of foreign/external entities are confused people.

External influence?

A country, so Mwagiru argues, is obliged to ignore “international” demands if they undermine national interests. No state should allow external forces to define its interests. One of the obstacles to protecting national interests, however, is that Kenya has excessive domestic proxies pandering to external entities at Kenya’s expense.

There is need, therefore, to expand the circle of serious Kenyans looking after Kenya’s national interests. Since many short-change Kenya out of ignorance, requiring high level politicians, legislators, judicial officials, and bureaucrats to spend specified time in the NDC learning about national interests, would help a great deal.

NDC exposure might reduce ignorance but not the mischief often arising from individual loyalties to external forces. Mischief makers need different handling and the country is seemingly ready for that.

Prof Munene teaches History and International Relations at the USIU- Africa