The Garissa, Kenya Massacre. A Synopsis.

 

‘Oh God Of All Creation,

Bless this Our Land And Nation,

Justice Be Our Shield And Defender,

May We Dwell In Unity, Peace And Liberty,

Plenty Be Found Within Our Borders.’

(National Anthem Of The Republic Of Kenya, first stanza)

     I just started writing humorous tongue-in-cheek blogs that put a smile on those that are weary and heavy-laden. However, after the attacks at Garissa University College by Al Shabab operatives or terrorists on the morning of Thursday,  2nd April 2015, I have decided to write a more serious piece, a synopsis on the wretched unfathomable crimes against humanity that were committed by some murderous individuals that hide behind the veil of Islam and ruefully try to justify their heinous acts. I don’t profess to know the solutions to these problems and I don’t think that there is going to be a one-all one-stop solution to the issue of insecurity in Kenya. Cancerous growths are found where conditions that cause them to thrive are ideal and once the conditions are withdrawn, the growths die or go into remission. It is the same thing with security. We need to identify the conditions that enable the cancer of insecurity to thrive. Once these conditions have been withdrawn or eliminated, then the insecurity malaise shall be eliminated or go into remission.

     Clearly, we have an insecurity problem in Kenya. Who or what is the cause of the insecurity problems in Kenya? It is you and I. Who is going to solve the insecurity issues in Kenya? It is going to be you and I.

      Insecurity in Kenya is not only confined to Al Shabab operatives. We have had insecurity in various hot pockets of our country numerous times. These killings are usually cloaked as political, religious, social and economic killings. These insecurity hot spots have had murderous gangs operating with impunity and wreak havoc on their gullible and helpless occupants who have nothing to do with the complaints that the homicidal gangs espouse in an effort to justify, explain or explain away their genocide. Somehow, these bloodthirsty misfits escape the long arm of the law and operate freely without fear. They kill and maim in full public view. Many of them are well known to us and in many instances, we are sympathetic to their insane, egregious and unattainable causes. We supply shelter to them, give them moral, spiritual and financial support and coddle and cuddle them in our midst. We turn a blind eye as they collect stockpiles of deadly ammunition in preparation for the attacks. Then, they strike: with deadly precision! Then we act surprised and angry, whilst they planned these activities with our implicit, tacit or even direct knowledge. The Mungiki operated with impunity right under our noses. We knew who they were but let their cancerous attributes spread and before we knew it, they had entire parts of the country under their autocratic control.

      During general or even by-elections, there is usually violence. Organized groups send shivers down the spines of Kenyans as they threaten to scuttle the democratic process. Neighbors who have been living peacefully with each other, intermarrying, conducting trade and commerce and helping each other in times of need are suddenly pitted against one another. People hide behind community groups and tribal outfits and attack members of certain communities, leading to backlashes and counter-backlashes, attacks and counterattacks from both sides who are, erroneously, enraged enough and justified enough to commit acts of ethnocide! The country then burns and everybody asks why the country burned! It is because of you and I. As the people were planning these activities, you saw and heard what they were about to do but did nothing. Some of you even did something about it. You supported them and gave them the thumbs up! Then you complain and wonder what happened! In Baragoi, Mpeketoni, Mt. Elgon, Lamu, Garissa, Mandera, Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, Kilgoris, Kerio Valley, Narok, Molo, Eldoret and all those hot spots of violence, the locals were guilty of aiding and abetting the gangs responsible for the violence. It is only you and I who can stop them. But how?

     Why is there insecurity in Kenya and why does it seem like it is always out of control? What can be done to contain it and how can this be done?

     Insecurity anywhere occurs where there is a loophole. For someone to commit acts of violence, there is usually a loophole somewhere. There is a lapse of security that emboldens the terrorists to attack and attack again with little fear of being caught. In all areas in Kenya where attacks have been reported, there has been little or no police presence. Sometimes, the police are too ill equipped and too outnumbered to counter the terrorist activities taking place and they actually flee the attackers. I would do the same thing if I was a police officer faced with a life and death situation; I would flee…

     We have talked about the police. Talking about the police in Kenya can result in a PHD thesis of 10,000 pages to be submitted before a panel of 1,000 professors! Where do we even start? From recruitment, the exercise is fraught with corruption. Think about it this way. The people joining the police force actually paid their way into the police force. They were forced to part with substantial amounts of money. Qualified and willing applicants who don’t have the requisite amounts to grease the palms of the greedy recruiting officers don’t make the cut! Food for thought; don’t you think the newly minted police officers, who have paid upto a quarter of a million Kenya Shillings each to get into the police force, shall try and recoup the massive ‘investment’ that they made? Once the officers are recruited, there is the delicate issue of where they shall be posted once they graduate out of the Kenya Police College in Kiganjo, Nyeri, Kenya. Those who know someone high up there get ‘good’ postings, which is a euphemism for postings where they shall be able to fleece the public by way of coerced bribes. Those who cannot bribe their way into favorable postings are posted to desolate and far away places, to places like Garissa, Mandera, Baragoi, Mararal, Tana River and other so-called hardship areas where another type of terrorist is reigning supreme, unchecked, unbridled and unwavering. The policemen sent to those posts are already unmotivated, poorly paid, poorly armed and poorly trained. Also, the government has this cruel practice of posting incompetent or uncooperative police officers (and civil servants in general) to the hardship areas. When being demoted or punished, you are thrown to these hardship, arid areas! How are they expected to eliminate terrorism with virtually no resources? That’s basically a death trap! Remember the wives of Nigerian soldiers demonstrating and asking their husbands not to go and fight Boko Haram? Same thing, a death wish. No need to go to a place where the odds are stacked against you.

     Fine, police are hired. Do they have resources to fight terrorism in all parts of the country? They should! If you have been following the news closely, Kenya’s economy is the third fastest growing economy in the world! Google it; it’s true! What a shame! Kenya made it to number 4 of Bloomsberg’s best emerging nations to invest in! There you have it. Kenya is not a poor country, never was and right now, it is flush with cash. People are investing heavily in its real estate, banking, stock exchange, industrial, transportation and other sectors of the economy. This relatively rich country has a rag-tag police force that is ill-equipped to fight crime and insecurity. What is happening to the funds allocated every year to the Kenya Police Force?

     An unmotivated, poorly remunerated, poorly housed, poorly equipped and poorly regulated police force is a disaster that is not only waiting to happen, but is a disaster happening right now. Their motto of ‘utumishi kwa wote’ (service to everyone) becomes meaningless. They can’t serve everyone because they just cannot be able to do it. The odds are stacked against them. Apathy develops. Some look for ways of supplementing their income. They have power, a badge and a gun. Armed with these three weapons, they terrorize innocent civilians. Traffic police terrorize motorists and collect hefty bribes.  Border patrol and immigration officers terrorize genuine citizens and let in the same terrorists they are supposed to keep out. Local police terrorize citizens who are basically minding their own business, police rent out guns and uniforms to unscrupulous gangs who vicariously terrorize citizens, the police themselves turn into part-time or even full time gangsters and terrorize the very citizens they took an oath to protect. Former policemen, trained in the art of arms handling become gangsters and assassins for hire, terrorizing and eliminating the very citizens whose lives they are supposed to protect. It becomes a Wild Wild West, where there is a blurred line between the sheriff and the gangsters. The citizens cannot tell who is who and distrust the sheriff because the sheriff is a gangster just like the gangsters he is supposed to be fighting. A bamboozling state of affairs.

     Corruption. This is what is causing all problems in Kenya! Yes, corruption. Corruption is the sun that the planets of insecurity, inflation, poor healthcare and budget deficits are revolving around. It is the gangrene that is finishing, engulfing, suffocating and killing an otherwise healthy and robust Kenya off! When the country of Kenya makes its money, it allocates this money to the very sectors who made the country make money in the first place. This largesse and its divvying is what causes the problem. First, the funds allocated to security are not enough. Or are they? As with any economy, whether it is the economy in your household or the country’s, you have to learn how to budget the economy. If an area needs more funds, then see how more funds can be allocated to that area or sector. I personally believe that the funds currently allocated to security can stabilize the Kenya Police to acceptable standards. The problem is that too much money is lost in the allocation of these resources. The very same problems the police face are turned into cash cows by the very same people we elected to safeguard our country and its resources! If we want to build decent housing for the police and replace their dilapidated shacks that they share amongst themselves, a greedy bureaucrat sees an opportunity to take the country to the cleaners.

     Do you recall the Anglo-leasing scandal? Yes, it was about the procurement of passport equipment systems and forensic science laboratories for the police. The Kenyan taxpayer was fleeced by senior government officials through non-delivery of goods and services and massive overpricing. Monies allocated for the overhaul of the police force are diverted and used for personal gain. The perpetrators are not brought to book, and hide behind their ethnic curtains and curtail efforts to prosecute them. They use their tribesmen to fight back corruption charges, claiming that ‘they’, the prosecuting powers, have been sent to finish ‘us’, members of a certain community. This is usually enough. Once the waters have been muddied and members of communities alerted as to the ‘finishing off’ of one of them, and vicariously, them, prosecution is impossible. When was the last time you heard of a successful prosecution of a high-profile corrupt bureaucrat or politician? Whistle-blowers, nationalists and patriots who alert you, the Kenyan public, about these improprieties are ridiculed, called traitors and even forced to flee into exile as their lives are in danger. They are the bad ones! Meanwhile, bombs, explosives and machetes reign supreme! And you keep asking, what happened? You have the answer right there; it is staring at you right in the face. 

 

     Our leaders, oh our leaders! When they are not slapping each other, stripping each other naked, sleeping with each other and generally leeching off the country’s exchequer, they are happily sharing the loot with each other! Yes, these leaders who lie to you and swear that they are enemies! However, when it comes to looting, the enmities are forgotten. They wash their hands together and curve out amongst themselves pieces of the national cake! They have their cake and eat it too! Like the bibilical Lazarus, mwananchi, the common man, lays there longing for scraps from our leaders’ table, whilst the dogs lick our open financial sores. Ironically, the finagling leaders also complain about insecurity! The nerve! What do they do? Pass laws that supply each one of them with personal armed bodyguards! They don’t look for a solution that shall alleviate the need for bodyguards in the first place. They take care of their own security first, citizens’ security be darned! The leaders are a reflection of the people who elect them. If you bribe the policeman with Kshs 100, they bribe the procurement people with Kshs 1 million. If you bribe the Lands Registry clerks with Kshs 1,000, they bribe the Lands Registry clerks with Kshs 100 million. You get away with your indiscretions, they get away with theirs. Simple. Why do you think that they are different? You elect leaders with poor moral compasses and questionable ethics and expect them to deliver? How hilarious! You are sending foxes to guard the henhouse/chicken coop and you are surprised when the hens start disappearing. But alas! Are they not foxes? You send wolves to guard the sheep and expect all the sheep to be at the sheep-pen at dawn? Election time is when you purge the country of all these foxes and wolves. Elect visionary leaders who have the interests of their constituents and countrymen at heart. Joseph De Maistre stated that every nation gets the government it deserves. You elect corrupt, unethical and callous leaders, you deserve corruption, erosion of ethics and callousness of the highest degree! Tafakari hayo! (Think deep, deeper still, about that) This is the first step in Kenya’s journey of a thousand miles.

 

     Our Kenyan Muslim brothers. This is my plea to you. The terrorists are hiding behind your sacred religion to commit these crimes. They are misusing the name of Allah to slaughter innocent citizens. The terrorists are using Muslims amongst you to arrange these sanguinary attacks. They are enjoying immunity from prosecution as they are being harbored and hidden from the relevant authorities by Muslims sympathetic to them. Some misguided Muslims are gathering intelligence for the terrorists. These terrorists are usually not natives of the places where they launch their attacks. They come in and glean information from the locals. The locals and Muslim students for example, knew that the Christian students in the Garissa University College were gathering for prayers on the morning of the massacre. They passed the information to the terrorists and the terrorists used this with deadly accuracy!  

 

     Our Muslim brothers, I have yet another plea. Please, pledge your loyalty to the country of Kenya. Let me explain; Americans are some of the most divided people you shall ever meet. They politic day and night and cannot agree on anything, so it seems. However, when it comes to their patriotism, it is unequivocal. They wholly owe their allegiance to the Stars and Stripes. Mexican Americans owe their allegiance to the U.S, not to Mexico. They don’t shout ‘Texas sio America’. (Texas is not the US.) African Americans, Polish Americans, Japanese Americans, Russian Americans and even Kenyan Americans owe their allegiance to the U.S, not to the countries that they came from. Yes, sometimes there are the difficult issues of discrimination, racism and so on and so forth but when their Nationhood is threatened, they present a unified force. There are many problems in the U.S but Americans stand united. Why can’t we do this in Kenya? Why are you in Kenya enjoying the privileges of the country of Kenya but yet you are feeling that ‘Pwani sio Kenya’, ‘Garissa sio Kenya’, ‘Mandera sio Kenya’ (Coast is not Kenya, Garissa is not Kenya, Mandera is not Kenya) and so on and so forth? Sure, problems are rife in our country, but these problems can only be resolved if, first and foremost, we present a united front against our enemies, protect our country from outsiders and then solve our problems once our country is secure. The Turkana are also in the so-called marginalized areas, yet they don’t feel any less Kenyan now, do they? Do they owe their allegiance to South Sudan or Ethiopia? No! Their allegiance is to Kenya.

 

    Our Muslim brothers, I have yet another plea. If you support rogue terrorists thinking that this shall somehow fix your own problems, you are wrong. Let me explain. When the terrorists come into your enclaves and slay innocent people who are not Muslims and spare you, two things shall happen, maybe more. There shall be an exodus of the people who don’t profess your faith and these people who leave shall leave with their human, economic and industrial resources. If you kill ‘foreign’ teachers, you shall have a shortage of teachers. A shortage of teachers shall mean that there shall be fewer educational opportunities for your children, meaning that they shall be unable to compete in the real world. This shall be a self-fulfilling prophesy. Without an educated populace, incomes are poor, opportunities are few and far between and the same problems plaguing you now shall plague you generations later. Think about it. In this evolving global village we are living in, we cannot continue living in our tribal enclaves whilst excluding those we deem ‘foreign’ to us, madoadoa. Many Muslims have relocated and are successfully pursuing their Kenyan dream in various parts of the country unhindered. Why then, are you hindering a few Kenyans from pursuing their Kenyan dream in your so called enclaves? Are they not exercising the freedoms that are enshrined in our ‘new’ Kenyan Constitution which you voted for? 

 

     My Muslim brothers. Please take heed. You are Kenyans just like the rest of us. We all are going through the same problems that you are going through and we can only solve these tough economic, social and political  issues as one. Not as Christians and Muslims, Somalis and Luhyas, Giriamas and Pokomos, Samburus and Borana. We have to include everyone and we all have a part to play. My Muslim brothers. March, protest and condemn these killings and do so en masse. Yes, Muslims do issue statements condemning attacks and we are grateful for that, but this is not enough. We need to see the real Muslims who belong to the peaceful religion of Islam march publicly and boldly and in large numbers condemning the terrorist acts whenever they are committed by people who profess to be Muslims. You need to send a clear and unequivocal message to them and use the same Koran that they quote whilst committing their atrocities, as your shield and defender whilst doing this. Perception is reality. When we see the same few Sheikhs and Imams issue statements condemning attacks whilst many other Imams are preaching fiery and discombobulating edicts that give a green light to their adherents to attack those who are not like them, those who don’t worship like them, then the rest of the Kenyans assume that the Muslims are complicit in the terrorist activities! Of course, this is not true. One or two Imams or Sheikhs preaching animosity and annihilation can undo the work of hundreds of Imams preaching peace. Come out in large numbers and support the Imams and Sheikhs who support peace. Publicize this and show Kenyans that you are with them now and shall always be with them in peaceful resolutions to the problems that plague us. The trial of Sir Thomas More, Lord Chancellor of England under King Henry VIII, popularized the legal precedent and the maxim “qui tacet consentire videtur” (literally, who (is) silent is seen to consent). When you remain silent, your silence is so great, it speaks. When you remain silent on the unwarranted odious massacres committed by rogue Muslims, your silence is seen by some as consenting to the massacres; your silence is so great it speaks. Speak out loudly and unequivocally against the massacres and terrorist activities, otherwise your silence shall imply consent.

 

     The terrorists shall always attack. You may claim that Al Shabab is attacking Kenya because Kenya has the Kenya Defense Forces (KDF) in Somalia and Al Shabab shall stop attacking Kenya once KDF soldiers are pulled out of Somalia. However, Al Shabab has been in existence since 2006, if not earlier and they had been consistently attacking Kenyan targets way before the KDF soldiers entered Somalia. I support the withdrawal of KDF soldiers from Somalia but trust me, Al Shabab shall not stop their attacks against Kenya and Kenyans. They are a terror group that exists sorely for purposes of terrorism. Their demands are insane and unattainable and their own Somali people from Somalia are tired of their deadly and destructive attacks on them. Their main aim is to remain relevant even when their actual numbers are falling and that is why their attacks get more barbaric each time. Let us join hands and strategize and flush out Al-Shabab from Kenya. Let us push them into Somalia. Let us not let them in. Do you know why Al Shabab does not attack Ethiopia even when Ethiopia also has troops in Somalia and shares an even longer border with Somalia? They protect their border and Ethiopian citizens don’t allow the Al Shabab to infiltrate Ethiopia, recruit dejected youth into suicide missions and going back and forth between Ethiopia and Somalia to plan these death missions. The Ethiopians have kept the Al Shabab out. We have welcomed them with open arms!  

     

     Uhuru Kenyatta, son of Jomo. Deal with insecurity the same way your father dealt with insecurity. Firmly! Many people would disagree with the founding father’s presidency and his legacy but they are in agreement about one thing; he dealt with insecurity firmly and did not waver. When he meted out a decree, he meant it! He dared the dreaded Idi Amin to encroach one inch of Kenya and he, Amin, would discover why the hyena limps with his hind legs. He promised to grind Idi Amin like grains of maize or corn. Idi Amin the bully, ambled quietly to Kampala, never to utter his annexation rubbish ever again! Everyday, son of Jomo, you are sounding like a broken record. You bark incessantly but you have no bite. You keep issuing directives, ultimatums, deadlines and threats but these are mere smoke-screens to detract from the awful attention you are according insecurity. You can build all the 12 lane highways you want. You can build pipelines and ports and railways and other significant infrastructure. You are just creating grandiose structures for the psychotic imbeciles to blow up! If you cannot rein in insecurity, then people shall remember you, not as the guy who built roads and pipelines and railways, but as the guy who could not eliminate Al Shabab. Buildings are fleeting; security is paramount! It’s not even about ‘legacies’ any more. These are rights that belong to every Kenyan and as custodian of Kenya, it is your duty to uphold the Constitution. No ifs and buts. Tackle corruption and leave a lasting and enduring legacy. Son of Jomo, the blood of the innocent victims is crying from the ground. They need justice. Bwana Uhuru, we always hear ‘fununu’, rumors, reports of imminent attacks on our soil. These terrorists brazenly and always give us warnings before attacking. Sometimes they even tell us what areas or places they shall invade. The Kenyan intelligence seems to be caught with its pants down as they seem oblivious to and surprised by the attacks. I know that you cannot fully eliminate terror threats but if the intelligence is ratcheted up, then we shall stop the terrorists dead in their tracks!

 

     Demand results from your lieutenants. Peg job appointments to sensitive security dockets (and all other dockets) on merit and performance. We have had chefs in charge of national security! We are not interested in eating dengu, lentils any more! Are appointments to sensitive security documents based on merit or are they based on political kickbacks for political support? Are our best security men the ones steering the security ship or are incompetent greenhorns running the ship aground? The same terrorists attacking us are corruptly acquiring Kenyan passports and Identity cards and attacking us with impunity! Close that loophole. Bring back our soldiers stationed in Somalia and use them to protect the porous border that is being infiltrated by Al Shabab operatives. We need to take care of ourselves first before we head out to solve other people’s problems! This is your job. It is not a favor we are asking of you; we are asking you to do your job. The buck stops with you president Uhuru Kenyatta. Look at how you derided British travel advisories and ridiculed potential British tourists as ‘taxi drivers’ and bragged that Kenya did not really need British tourists as Barrack Obama was coming to visit Kenya in July! Other than those comments being irresponsible coming from a distinguished head of state, you have been forced to eat humble pie as the travel advisories you had so brashly trashed 24 hours before the attacks proved prophetic. Shall Barrack Obama come to Kenya in July if his security is not guaranteed? Maybe not. President Uhuru Kenyatta; forget the laptops you promised our children. Rein in our security, ‘na si tafadhali’, and we are not seeking a favor from you. Do your job Mr. President. You have failed in this regard.

 

     May God rest the souls of the innocent victims that lost their lives in the grisly massacre. May those who were injured have a speedy and complete recovery. Amen.