President wrong to celebrate killer police officers

**A plainclothes police officer takes cover during anti-government protests in Mathare slums, Nairobi, on July 19, 2023.** [Collins Kweyu, Standard]

Azimio-led anti-government protests continued in various parts of the country marked by destruction of property, deaths and maiming blamed on police, and a consequential toll on transport and travel, the William Ruto-led Kenya Kwanza regime strangely celebrated the conduct and role of the security forces.

Dr Ruto himself, while in Isiolo County, commended the police for dealing firmly and decisively with those he perceives as economic saboteurs opposed to his rule (read Azimio).

While it's true that the protests have sometimes turned chaotic and proved counterproductive, the conduct of the police, especially, has thus far been unimpressive in the eyes of many, including those watching - and trying to help - from outside our borders.

Social media platforms are awash with video clips of police officers bludgeoning peaceful and unarmed protesters, and some even show them shooting at sometimes innocent Kenyans with the intent to kill and/or harm.

A majority of the protests-related deaths reported thus far have been from bullet wounds sustained as a result of being shot at by armed groups in the company of police.

Such conduct on the part of our security forces and politicians in the Kenya Kwanza regime using killer squads to quell dissent and disquiet - isn't and can't be commendable at all.

As we saw last Thursday, even when Azimio co-principals Raila Odinga, Martha Karua and Kalonzo Musyoka were a no-show, Kenyans organised themselves and still took to the streets in several cities and towns across the country.

This is no longer an Azimio versus Kenya Kwanza political duel. The disgruntlement and disaffection of Kenyans with the Kenya Kwanza regime is palpable - and increasingly evident - even in its own support bases.

Social compact

And there is only one solution to it all: Let the Ruto regime listen to and have a conversation with Kenyans. One of our founding fathers' failures at independence in 1963 was the fact that they didn't establish and encourage the continual promotion of social compact and justice as the doctrinal predicate of our societal founding.

As a result, Kenya is, for the most part, ethnicity-riven, institutionally pliant and venal, sleaze-ridden and, though development-hungry, long in the maw of misgovernance.

Talks, if any, must go beyond the momentary concern over the cost of living, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission servers, the "Cherera 4", the public lives of Raila, Uhuru Kenyatta and Ruto and, of course, the Kenya Kwanza coalition's governmental era.

Elsewhere, public processes aimed at achieving greater national compact - and prosperity - have taken years, decades even, to conclude.

In Colombia, talks to end 52 years of an armed rebellion concluded after four years in Havana, Cuba, in 2016. Let's embrace - and keep up - the practice of talking our way out of our problems as a country and people.

-Mr Baraza is a writer and historian based in Nairobi. [email protected]