Todays Nairobi Star features a headline indicating that Somali insurgents are planning a terror attack in Kenya and that consequently the security forces have been put on high vigilance.Such calls remind us that our Country is not safe and reminds many Kenyans of the many turmoils ,heartache,Death and loss the Country has experienced since the August 7th terrorist attack on the American Embassy in Nairobi in the year 1998.Fear is slowly gripping back to the County and for a certainty our security forces are ill equipped and adequately apprised to cope with these kinds of human caused disasters.Peace continues to be elusive.For the most part our security machinery is reactive(often coming after the fact) than preventive! I stand to be corrected.
On the other hand as this cloud of gloom faces us especially considering that a suspect was apprehended yesterday ferrying over 600 bomb detonators from Eastleigh on a bus bound for Wajir-there is definately cause for alarm(Ogopa Eastleigh).
But what makes it worse is the fact that we have a military regime ,officers and personnel who still employ stone age tactics to respond to modern day crime! Its like that jua kali mechanic who has different sizes of nyundo's(hammers) and even when your car has an overflow insists on pounding the engine in order for the car to start! When defeated the mechanic always implores a bigger hammer trying to pound away the problem until he has no further strength.
My former lecturer and kinsfolk Professor P.L.O Lumumba would state"you do not respond to a mosquito bite with the pound of a hammer".Unfortunately our military commanders believe in brute force and are out there in Mandera maiming, injuring,brutally abusing men ,raping women and children under the guise of dealing with the long outstanding problem of inter clan(Murule and Garre clans) cattle rustling in North Eastern Province of Kenya.Shame on them we are now in the 21st Century! The Human Rights abuses being carried out in Mandera & Garrisa as we speak is chilling and appalling!
I believe there is need for more brain than brawn at the Department of Defence (DOD)of the Kenyan Military .Even the USA with all its military might and nuclear weapons learnt that for them to be effective and minimise losses in Iraq there was need for them to work along with the Indigenous communities alongside with the Community of Likeminded States.For our military the approach is beat everything in sight including farm and wild animals.I believe that is a cowards move. Useless fellas....the North Eastern problem is not the same as that of the Sabaot Land Defence force or Mungiki Menace.The personalities and phsyches involved are different.The present action by the military will cause more insecurity than security after all
no Govermnent that fights its own Citizens has ever succeded.The students who have seen their teachers, chiefs,Imams being clobbered are now fertile minds for Al qaeda and other fanatical groups to recruit just from accross the borders and just like a snake they are bound to retreat into a hole and strike back with precision and venomous attack in due time.... Major General Kianga please tell your boys & girls to think, think and think some more!Create allies not enemies. Intelligence is not a weakness it is a strength and as long as all humans continue to bleed and die...your officers are no safer or better! Peace always prevails over war, friendship over enmity and measured responses over fanatism !
By the way how come the Human Right organizations,Newsprint, Politicians and other Kenyans are mum over the abuses happening to Kenyan Citizens by the military...are they not also humans or perhaps they are second class Citizens only to be remembered come elections?
