29 January 2008
editorial
Nairobi — Only a day after the horrendous killings in Naivasha, fresh cases of deaths were reported in various parts of the country yesterday, signalling no end in sight for the senseless blood-letting that has pushed Kenya to the ranks of failed states.
What is scaring is that we are now witnessing revenge killings; malevolent acts of deep anger and bitterness, which, if unchecked, may turn this country into one huge boiling cauldron.
Electoral dispute that triggered the current turmoil is fast receding to the back burner as ethnic hatred-cum-chivalry take the centre stage, exposing base instincts and driving the country back to the pre-colonial times.
It is inconceivable how people who have all along lived in harmony, shared resources and common utilities, can turn around and start butchering each other senselessly. Matters are worse when we see youths, some hardly aged 20 years, taking machetes, bows and arrows and other instruments of terror to attack people of different ethnic backgrounds.
None of these acts serve the cause of democracy, which any of the combatants would purport to be fighting for. On the contrary, these are primitive and retrogressive acts that balkanise and annihilate a once united country that is Kenya.
Mount a roadblock
But we are shocked, like everybody else, at the inertia and ineptitude by the Government to control the situation. We noted yesterday, and we repeat today, that there is no way a gang of 50 or more people can spring from some corner, mount a roadblock on the busy Nairobi-Nakuru highway, stop and search vehicles and kill individuals from perceived rival ethnic backgrounds - and get away scot-free. That illustrates that either the security network has collapsed or, there is complicity in the act.
Neither, can armed gangs run amok and attack an estate, set residences on fire and kill about 20 people without security forces getting wind of it and nipping it in the bud.
When police commissioner Hussein Ali chose to speak yesterday, he treated Kenyans to long tales of the tens of case files being investigated and of the 28 to be prosecuted for murder. The message Kenyans wanted to hear was why the police have been unable to contain the violence. Better still, what it was doing to forestall any potential death.
When Security minister George Saitoti visited Naivasha yesterday, he gave directives about beefing up the security in the area, but did not spell out the broad and long-term measures to contain the situation.
Path of peace
The military may have been brought to deal with the turmoil in Nakuru and Naivasha, but what about other areas? In short, what is the Government's plan in putting the country on the path of peace?
Political leaders across the divide have been issuing statements urging their followers to eschew violence, but, except for a few cases, they have not made practical steps to visit their communities and preach the same message.
Most surprising, President Kibaki, at whom the buck stops, and his rival Raila Odinga, other than that photo-ops session last week, have not taken the message of peace to the doorstep of their followers.
We want to exhort President Kibaki to come out of State House and tackle the unfolding crisis. He cannot keep quiet when the country is burning. We also demand the same of Mr Odinga.
It is unfortunate, in fact depressing, that violence is worsening when mediation team, under former UN boss Kofi Annan, is at work. Nothing poisons the environment for mediation as violence does.
For the citizens, the living words of American rock music icon Elvis Presley are apt: "Animals don't hate, and we're supposed to be better than them."
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Kibaki and Raila, come out, come out, wherever you are and put an end to the violence you have unleashed on our country. We voted for you believing you had the interest of the country at heart. You have proved to be egotistical, self-serving and greedy. Despite entrities from the world and the Kenyan people, not only have you failed to stop the violence but have yourselves hidden in your heavily guarded homes. The situation is obviously beyond your control and it is therefore time you erased yourselves from the political scene and let somebody else… [Read Full Text]
if we look at the history of kenya,this ethnicity has been there long enough.look at tom mboya's funeral at holy family basilica(you tube)!!!clashes started.I believe kikuyus are peace loving and hustlers.having the the higher population, they have earned the survival skills to take care of its people,that is why they keep doing businesses,coning(if its true)and working hard but they only fought the white man'mzungu'. when multiparties started.the kikuyu won if we will be looking at the leaders and make them represent the tribe.Matiba won elections in 1992 but kikuyus didn't fight instead they went on working and kenya was peaceful.when… [Read Full Text]
Kibaki cannot come out and preach peace because peace requires that he must vacate the presidential palace and slip into political oblivion and disgrace. Kibaki is an unscrupulous and selfish politician like Daniel Arap Moy, not a father-like national leader like Jomo Kenyata. Kenya needs politicians with a national interest in their heart, not egomaniacs or megalomaniacs with egos larger than Kenya itself.
Where does Kenya go from the current fratricidal anarchy? To new elections under a newly appointed government under a mandate supported by the African Union and a New Electoral Commission. And I feel that… [Read Full Text]
Its not Raila or Kibaki who should come out to preach PEACE, its me and you. We expect the leaders to stop the violence while we ourselves are hourbouring hatred and mistrust among ourselves. You see this country has very weired people as Micheal Joseph of safaricom said one time... they start fires and wait for someone to put it out.
Well the bad news is this... this country is burning and if anyone cares to follow the Rwanda story, the citizens themselves took responsibility for healing and reconcilliation. Kabuga and others who fuelled the genocide there are nowhere. So… [Read Full Text]
Wow its amazing how you write a very strong article but yet you show that you have very little understanding of what is transpiring in Kenya. How can you call on Kibaki to come out and speak on the violence and bloodshed that is going on in kenya, when he is root cause of the problems at hand. Understand that his Kikuyu folk are being butchered not only by luos but by 4 to 6 other tribes. If you contend that Kibaki should come out and speak against the violence, then let us see him do it in Kisumu, or… [Read Full Text]