When the State hires thugs to fight its citizens, it loses war on criminals

Plain cloth police officers arrest a protester along Kenyatta avenue while protesting against the killing of blogger Albert Ojwang' while in police custody, protesters demand immediate resignation of DIG Eliud Lagat from office. [Jonah Onyango, Standard]

A system that uses criminals to fight its battles cannot fight crime. It’s not merely a contradiction but it’s a confession. Such a State is not at war with crime; it is in love with it. It is not repulsed by vice but it is entertained by it. Crime, for such a system, is not a threat to be vanquished but a partner to be recruited, a friend to be rewarded, and an ally to be paraded.

This is Kenya’s current dilemma. The people have long called this a lying government. Not as an insult, but as a conclusion drawn from patterns too repeated to ignore. And when citizens raise their voices, the State fights back, often with fury and threats. Yet, in recent days, cover-up attempts by senior officers have been exposed and unravelling in broad daylight.