We need to be serious with public safety, law and order

Amnesty International Kenya Executive Director Irungu Houghton. [Wilberforce Okwiri, Standard]

Today marks 74 years since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted. The enduring lesson for us all is when one generation fails to promote and protect human rights it will always negatively impact the next generation. The other is that we must find new financial, inter-sectoral and inclusive ways to organise our freedom.

Freedom is now topical and a social obligation for the Kenya Kwanza Administration and opposition Azimio la Umoja. It means everything to everyone including those recently released serious economic crime suspects. Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen describes it best. He argues all humans regardless of their legal context or cultural traditions are entitled to be free from want, fear and neglect. Our constitution decrees we have the freedom to be alive, unafraid, educated, sheltered, safe, informed, fully expressive and equal. These freedoms stop where they infringe on other's freedoms. Our laws do not license us to steal from the State, discriminate, or kill others.