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How secure are we Kenyans within our borders and from external enemies?

By: Jerry Okungu

[ Posted On: 2006-04-26 ]

I saw that poor widow in Busia talking at her husband's funeral. She was daring enough to point an accusing finger at Vice President Moody Awori along with other government officials seated at a VIP tent. Her anger was not misplaced and neither was she alone. Fourteen other families were going through the same motions, wondering aloud why their loved ones and bread winners had to die such senseless deaths.

These people died because there have been too many skirmishes and primitive inter clan wars in the northern parts of Kenya. These clashes have been variously described as inter ethnic feuds or cattle rustling activities among rival communities.

As Kenyans mourned their loved ones with pleas from the political class that the deaths of 14 Kenyans should not be in vain, hardly a day passed without more deaths arising out of fresh clashes- this time purportedly from across the Ethiopian border.

Fair enough. We have been invaded from time to time by bandits from across Ethiopian and Somali borders. These recurrent invasions did not start yesterday and neither have we had the last of them. The question to ask is this; for how long will we continue to watch our people die just because we are a peace loving nation that is averse to going to war even when we are invaded?

Since independence, ordinary Kenyan tax payers have maintained several forms of armed personnel for the sole purpose of keeping the peace within our borders as well as protecting us from external enemies. We have maintained the regular police, the CID, and the General Service Unit just to make sure that criminal acts like inter clan killings and primitive behaviour like cattle rustling do not take place. Why then have we allowed all manner of internal conflicts to flourish as if we still live in Stone Age era?

During Kenyatta's era, the General Service Unit was variously known as Fanya Fujo Uone; a Kiswahili version that depicted their no nonsense behaviour. In those days, any untoward behaviour either by university students or some semblance of a rebellion by Luos in Nyanza was met with despicable brut force. Those who went to the University of Nairobi in the 1970s know just too well when the GSU were called in. And they came in only after combative university militia had defeated the regular riot squad.

The question to ask right now, unfortunately after so many lives have been lost, is this: Between the years Kenyatta so efficiently used the GSU and now, has the population and quality of this force gone up or down? If it has gone up, how come we have had to put up with so many senseless deaths arising from clan and ethnic clashes on disputes over cattle, water and land? In my humble opinion, the main role of a police force worth its meaning is to maintain law and order among citizens in society. It is this keeping of the peace that is the primary duty of the police force.

If the police cannot maintain law and order then we have no business having that arm of public expenditure in the first place.

I have often heard it argued that the number of policemen is so few in Kenya that they cannot be everywhere. Fair enough but is it also possible that not every part of Kenya is at war? How come the Tanzanian and Ugandan police have been able to execute their duties by maintaining law and order better than their Kenyan counterparts?

I may be wrong, but to the best of my knowledge I have yet to hear that the skirmishes in Kwanza, Mai Mahiu, West Pokot, Marsabit, Moyale and Wajir have been so overwhelming that the Police Commissioner has had to deploy the entire GSU sitting idle in Nairobi to the regions. I have equally yet to hear that these clashes that have claimed lives have been so intense that the Police Commissioner has had to request the Ministers for Internal Security and Defense to order military reinforcements to stamp out these criminal activities.

Again in Kenyatta's time, there was one thing the grand old man was famous for.

He was a no nonsense president. When the Somali government tried to encourage the then NFD shiftas to help them annex the northern part of Kenya, Kenyatta declared to all and sundry that not an inch of our land would be given away to anybody. He had to repeat with even better clarity, the same message to Idi Amin a few years later.

Isn't it sad that years later, our borders in the north have become playground for every bandit from our neighbouring states? How come we must be invaded, murdered and looted from time to time by bandits from Ethiopia and Somalia without either protest notes going to their governments or going after these murderers across the border? Let me state that the day Kenyan citizens of whatever nature will raid Ethiopia or Somalia across our common borders, these rogue governments will let lose their weapons deep inside our territories.

In geopolitical arrangements we have today, if neighbours realize that we are slow to act, if criminals realize that they can get away with murder, they will repeat their acts as often as it takes knowing full well that there would be no punitive action against them.

Kenya has played too much peace maker - good neighbour in the region. We may be the good boys of the international community. We may be the renowned and most respected peace keeping force to have come from this continent. However, back home we are bleeding to death. It is time we used our international peace keeping prowess back home and saved our very own. If we can stop Liberians, Sierra Leonians, Ethiopians, Bosnians and Iranians from killing each other, if we can go and keep peace in far away East Timor, surely can't we do something for our country?

It is time we combined prayer with action. After all God gave us our birthright to defend ourselves in the face of aggression. He taught the children of Israel how to fight and even conquer their enemies. We do not want to conquer and annex anybody's land but we have the right to defend our territorial borders and our lives from external aggressors. This much I don't not think there is any room for negotiations.

Article Source: http://www.afroarticles.com/article-dashboard

About The Author:

Jerry Okungu is a freelance political analyst based in Nairobi, Kenya. Jerry also serves as a Board Director at The Kenya Broadcasting Corporation. Jerry has written extensively on issues affecting Kenya and the rest of Africa over the years. He can be reached at Jerryokungu[at]hotmail.com. Other articles written by Jerry Okungu are available at this location

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