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Kenya: Law Should Be Changed to Free Guns
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The Nation (Nairobi)
OPINION
26 April 2008
Posted to the web 25 April 2008
Ng'ang'a Mbugua
Nairobi
For decades, Kerio Valley and the adjoining areas have been rocked by intermittent ethnic violence but they have never produced an internal refugee. Yet Eldoret, Kericho, Kuresoi, Molo, Nakuru and the surrounding areas produced hundreds of thousands of displaced people after less than six weeks of post-election violence.
What is the difference between these two sets of volatile regions in the Rift Valley? The answer is simple; in Kerio, the communities exercise their constitutional right to self-defence.
But the rest of the country frowns on the communities for observing this basic rule that guarantees their survival in an environment in which life would be "nasty, brutish and short," as British philosopher Thomas Hobbes so famously observed.
The only times the communities abandon their homes is when they have to look for water for themselves and their large herds of livestock.
President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga are seeking the wrong remedy for a simple malady. They can solve the internal refugee crisis once and for all by getting their lieutenants in Parliament to vote in favour of easing restrictions on the legal ownership of firearms.
This would give the public the power to exercise the right guaranteed by section 71 (2a) of the Constitution, which allows wananchi to use force in protection of their lives and property.
The only reason parts of the Rift Valley have spawned refugees is that unarmed people were confronted by militias, some of whom they had lived with as neighbours for years.
The law of the jungle has taught the antelope to lie low or create a distance between it and its aggressive, carnivorous neighbours. Although this law may serve the antelope well, it is untenable in a modern society as aptly shown by people who fled from their homes. In any case, people are political animals and it is difficult for them to adopt their neighbours' political morality.
It is curious that in a capitalistic country such as Kenya, not even one voice has called for an overhaul of the security system, yet it failed to protect the two fundamental values that capitalistic societies hold dear - the right to life and property. Capitalists hold this truth to be self-evident - that an attack on property is an attack on life.
Since the disciplined forces failed to discharge their mandate after the disputed elections, this responsibility should be privatised. After all, experience has shown that privatising failed or failing public institutions usually injects professionalism and efficiency into them. There is no reason why this cannot be replicated in the provision of security. If in doubt, ask the Kerio Valley residents.
In the past, critics of liberalising access to firearms have argued that they would put ordinary people's lives in peril because even squabbles in the streets or the bedroom would be resolved by bullets.
Incidentally, such incidents are few and far between in the Kerio Valley despite the easy accessibility of AK- 47s as well as the relatively low levels or education and social sophistication.
Even in the disciplined forces, the cases are so few as to be insignificant. Incidentally, in Kerio Valley, the AK- 47 plays a vital role in maintaining social, economic and political equilibriums.
Therefore, easing civilians' access to firearms would not only eradicate internally displaced people, but also boost crop production and avert the looming food shortage that has been aggravated by groups that cherish land more for its ornamental and sentimental value than its production importance.
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If Kenya is to achieve long-lasting stability, it ought to borrow a leaf from the US, whose constitution gives the people the right to bear arms and form militias for their own defence should the armed forces fail them, as happened in Kenya after the December elections.
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