‘Public security’ means the president’s misuse of power to violate rights and entrench sectarian rule
There is no doubt in Kenya that the Jubilee Administration is hell-bent on eroding the democratic gains achieved in the country through many years of blood and tears. Uhuru Kenyatta must not be allowed to establish a new dictatorship.
Mugambi Kiai in 1996 established the following truth: “The failure of the constitution to protect the conditions for democracy can generally be attributed to a) an overloading of powers onto the executive as opposed to the legislature and judiciary b) the lack of specific definitions in qualifying fundamental rights; for example ‘public security’ which is a qualification to almost all the rights. The executive has taken the liberty to define this term to mean protecting the President, and used it to clamp down on dissent”.. (In search of Freedom and prosperity, Kivutha Kibwana, Chris Maina Peter & Joseph Oloka-Onyango, Eds.)
The tragedy of the moment is that President Uhuru Kenyatta's dictatorship is not powered by any known intellectual leadership. I think that we need to urgently raise this debate beyond the politics of numbers Kenyatta controls in parliament. We need to take the current discourse arising from the demonic Security Laws Amendment Bill out of parliamentary confines into the philosophical, spiritual and moral spheres. This is how we carried the day in the 1990s.
We need to invite the defenders of Uhuru’s despotism to a place where they can tell us how corruption in the decaying Kenyan security agencies can be cured by jailing Kenyans who are exercising their citizenship. We must refuse to become a nation of idiots who cannot explain to our children why there is insecurity in the country, yet we know why the country is spiralling into a state of insecurity and terror.
We cannot allow President Uhuru Kenyatta’s incompetent administration to define who we are as Kenyans. Kenya has never been led by power and might but by ideas. That is the difference between us and Uganda, Zimbabwe and Rwanda. We are Kenya not Ethiopia!
A group of drafters filled with zeal and zest can not spend sleepless nights drafting amendments as dictated upon without our nation agreeing that the way forward for securing our development and developing our security is through amendments that strip Kenyans of their citizenship. Where are the Bishop Ogindes, Tuimusings, Omaes my voice of reason? Princes can not govern without philosophers and priests! The Constitution demands that you must canvass, debate and convince Kenyans about any item you want to introduce in the governance framework of this nation. Your dislike for political competitors like Raila Odinga and hatred for civil society organizations can not stop us from stating clearly that no one can rule Kenya as he wants. Kenya can only be governed according to the constitution and good sense, moderation, persuasion, deliberation. Not through fear and intimidation.
We cannot allow President Kenyatta to define how we shall hold his administration accountable. What this administration wants to do is to define the terms of holding them accountable, or put loosely, they want to be left to rule Kenya as they will, plunder resources as they wish, carry out extrajudicial killings with impunity, shut up every one they do not like at will. This is not acceptable. Because our younger siblings and children will ask us how we lost our souls and arguments to the minions and sycophants resident in State House, to faceless securocrats who want to overthrow the constitution of the republic of Kenya. President Kenyatta must assemble serious brains to make his argument for us to understanding what this is all about. We must interrogate the movers of these heinous amendments. Who are they? I do not know who they are! We keep talking of the Jubilee administration but I cannot put a face to the proponents of these draconian amendments.. Is it Aden Duale [Majority Leader in Parliament">? Is he the originator of these amendments? No. So who is it? Let us deal with real human beings who spent hours drafting these pieces of evil content. Let them come forward and define public security because Mugambi Kiai new this tactic twenty years ago and penned about it.
* THE VIEWS OF THE ABOVE ARTICLE ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHOR/S AND DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE PAMBAZUKA NEWS EDITORIAL TEAM
* BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS
* Please do not take Pambazuka for granted! Become a Friend of Pambazuka and make a donation NOW to help keep Pambazuka FREE and INDEPENDENT!
* Please send comments to editor[at]pambazuka[dot]org or comment online at Pambazuka News.