Government let us down by failing to act on Shakahola intelligence

Paul Makenzi at a Malindi Court in March 2023. [Nehemiah Okwembah, Standard] Kenyans are traumatised, suffering from many natural or self-inflicted national ailments. Nature contributes to suffering in various ways that include floods and droughts, earth tremors/quakes, and epidemics. Nature, however, is not to blame for everything because Kenyans help it to create suffering through destruction of eco-systems, excessive short-sighted greed, compounded by reckless and incompetent policies. The subsequent suffering, therefore, has multiple interconnected sources that are natural, religious, and also political. Although incompetence mostly accounts for the calamities, questions often arise over the possibility of 'intelligence' failure. In the search for the why of the incompetence, there follows anguished debates over responsibility for particular failure. Most people turn to the 'intelligence community', or the intelligence producers as the source of the calamity and in the process tend to excuse leadership, the intelligence consumer. Leadership has responsibility to act and make decisions based on the intelligence received. These involve 'investigations, institutional restructuring, and questioning the credibility of the intelligence. The intelligence received, some consumers claim, was not 'actionable' which in turn raises doubt about the competence of the leadership in particular times. The shock of the cult-related Shakahola massacre is one of those created calamities that forces focus on intelligence as produced and consumed. A search for the point of incompetence follows; was it at the production or at the consumption/decision making and action level? The incompetence is related to the quality of governance. As people with problems of honour, integrity, and respect for institutions occupy critical policy offices, the absence of those three qualities reduces ability to deliver public goods after which Kenyans experience rising depravation of proper working environment, reduction of income through taxes and inflation, and see rampant misuse of public resources. The government becomes an agent of poverty and dependency creation, promotes collective loss of hope, and spreads socio-spiritual desperation that makes people vulnerable to cultish manipulation. The information on the cults in Kilifi, for instance, was available but there was no will to deal with the cults. The shock of Shakahola had peculiar attractions. It curiously brought into public limelight two Malindi preachers, Mackenzie and Ezekiel. Although Mackenzie orchestrated the massacre, the point of curiosity was Ezekiel's role and that of other prominent 'pastors' because of those who came to his defence. Ezekiel enjoys big secular influence. Was it coincidental that DP Rigathi Gachagua and Raila Odinga, men who rarely agree on anything, appeared to agree on exonerating Ezekiel from likely Mackenzi links? The cult phenomenon penetrates mainstream religions and turns followers into zombies that defy agreed order. This worried President Daniel arap Moi enough and made him to appoint a commission to investigate devil worship. Since the content of the report remain mysterious, an impression arose that political and religious big shots might be protecting the cults. The protection enables those cults to turn children against parents, demonise education and other religions, and starve followers to submit to the wishes of the 'leader'. The apparent inability of those in authority to deal with cult misdeeds is both an indictment of the entire governing structure and evidence of gross incompetence either on intelligence producers or consumers. If the producers of intelligence in cult-prone areas did their job well, the intelligence consumers as policy and decision makers at all levels failed the country. They lacked competence to understand the import of intelligence or the capacity to act with integrity. There is serious need for national remedy to remove incompetence among intelligence consumers.

Government let us down by failing to act on Shakahola intelligence

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Government let us down by failing to act on Shakahola intelligence

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