KENYA: WHERE IS THE EVIDENCE OF EXTRA-JUDICIAL KILLINGS OF MUSLIM CLERICS?

Heads should and must roll following the highly damaging documentary this week by the Qatar-based Al Jazeera network.

And this is not because the Islamic-funded television station aired the forty-seven minute programme which Nairobi authorities have described as "scandalous and unethical."

Heads must roll because people who identified themselves as members of various branches of the Kenyan security forces allowed themselves to lend credence to a project that is either intended to puff up the Islamic Jihadist movement, or, project the Government of Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto as murderous and anti-Islam.

From the onset, the narrator made it clear that Al Jazeera had vetted the officers and found them to be genuine employees of Kenya security agencies. If indeed they are, then the officers, enshrouded in shadows to conceal their identity, violated their oath of office which, in part, calls for confidentiality of materials gathered in the course of duty.

Also, if it can be proved that those officers obtained official documents illegally and passed them over to a foreign agent, then they ought to be punished in accordance with the law of treason.

The Government should also investigate to find out who else was involved either within or without the civil service.

No government allows its officers to go on camera with the type of information given by the officers in "Inside Kenya Death Squads." They seemed to forget that the country is in the midst of a terrorist onslaught.

But there is one more issue. No one - including the so-called human rights organisations - has offered any concrete evidence to prove the Government is involved in any killings of Islamic leaders or others as part of an official elimination programme as claimed. If any such evidence exists, why hasn't it been given to the Government or to any international organisation for action?

What we have so far are speculations and innuendos which serve no useful investigative purpose.

For an international medium like Al Jazeera to engage in a propaganda war aimed at causing conflict between Muslims and Christians is a cheap way to gain favour from its largely Muslim Arab financiers.

Today, Governments all over the world are tightening their domestic security protocols and Kenya is not an exception. That is why the Administration has proposed sweeping changes in law.

But while I welcome the changes, I do not support any attempt to snatch away fundamental human rights as suggested.

And that is my say.

BE AWARE NKAISSERY. WHAT HAPPENED TO OLE LENKU COULD HAPPEN TO YOU.

Unless something unthinkable happens - either he turns down the appointment or Parliament refuses to approve - Joseph Nkaissery is certainly headed to the Office of the President as the second Cabinet Secretary for Interior and Coordinator of the National Government.

Conversely, his namesake, Joseph Ole Lenku, the person he is replacing at Harambee House, is destined to go to the same oblivion pit as many other former Cabinet officials unless President Uhuru Kenyatta is magnanimous enough to offer him a soft-landing in a public institution.

If one had told Ole Lenku a year ago to stay put in the hospitality industry and avoid the risks associated with public appointments, the former hotelier would probably have read mischief.

But let the truth be told. Senior public jobs in  Kenya are risky, stressful and thankless, and since they have no security of tenure, they are dangerously undependable. In the current constitution, the President is not encumbered by political baggage and can invariably chose anyone he wants from any background and fire him or her anytime without fears of political hazards.

In the case of Ole Lenku, his appointment to the sensitive position at a time when the country was already facing security threats was doomed from day one.

Few Kenyans believed a green-horn like Ole Lenku, a man who had never worked in the public sector before and one who was relatively unknown in security circles, could make any notable impact in an office previously occupied by such political giants as George Saitoti and John Michuki.

As a matter of fact, Kenyans felt cheated from the very onset and immediately began a campaign to malign him in every way possible. They insulted him in social networks and made fun of him publicly and privately, especially after the Westgate terrorist attack last September.

The campaign to discredit the Cabinet Secretary gained momentum after the senseless terrorist killings in Mpeketoni, Mombasa, and elsewhere and culminated in the recent murders in Mandera and Wajir.

If there is one person in the Jubilee Government who has attracted so much venom and scorn, that person is, unfortunately, Joseph Ole Lenku. At the end, President Kenyatta had no option but to sack him along with the Inspector General, David Kimaiyo.

Only recently, I argued here that the departure of Ole Lenku and Kimaiyo would make no difference in the way Al Shabaab perceives Kenya. Kenya remains Al Shabaab's greatest enemy. Without Kenya, the group will have no reason to exist.  So, anyone who thinks the attacks will cease because we have rid the security docket of its two most ridiculed officials must be day-dreaming.

I am now beginning to think that the terrorist assaults from across the border have nothing to do with the presence of Kenyan troops in Somalia. Both Ethiopia and Uganda have troops in that war-torn country but they have not seen the kind of attacks on the scale seen in Kenya,

My view is that the killings have roots in our own political and economic dispensations. Corruption in the police and immigration departments stands at the top of the list, followed by the scramble for the massive unexplored resources in Somalia by both Kenyan and Somalia warlords, and underground struggles for political power at home.

The connivance of Islamic jihadists both internally and externally with terrorist groups in recruiting jobless youngsters for service is also to blame.

The Kenya government must do what it has always intended to do, but has not done: close down the refugee camps in the north which serve as the breeding grounds for terrorist infiltration and recruitment; flush out and prosecute the financiers; and reorganise the security agencies from top to down.

At the same time, enact laws that would give our intelligence service powers to arrest and detain suspects immediately instead of referencing to the corrupt police force for action.

A final word of caution to Major-General (Rtd) Nkaissery. Take the job, but be aware that you cannot fight terrorism alone from your posh perch in downtown Nairobi. And, don't sit pretty as if the job is permanent and pensionable. What has happened to Ole Lenku could very easily happen to you.

By sacrificing a secure position as Member of Parliament for Kajiado to take up the hot seat, you are gambling everything you have worked so hard to achieve outside the military. So, let it work for you. Good luck, Joe.

And that is my say.

LEAVE OUR WOMEN ALONE TO WEAR WHAT THEY WANT

One would have expected that two weeks after the first shameful act of woman-stripping in Nairobi, scores of people would be cooling their heels at Kamiti Maximum Security Prison. But no!

The culprits are still roaming our streets and perhaps subjecting other women to similar despicable acts, even though their faces are recognisable from videos captured by bystanders and transmitted throughout the world via social media.

That first single dehumanising act in Nairobi a fortnight ago against an innocent woman exercising her constitutional rights to wear a dress of her choice, has kicked off a maniacal frenzy of criminal acts against females in Kenya.

Surprisingly the attacks, mainly at bus stops, are taking place in the open, during daylight, by thugs who are either high on drugs or suffering from different forms of mental disorders, without any intervention from the police or well-meaning citizens.

It is therefore easy to conclude that women are the most abused Godly creatures in Kenya today.

Even their views expressed through street demonstrations and protests have been ignored; while some male chauvinists continue to make comments on social platforms that are downright insane. That is why I commend the Law Society of Kenya for putting its foot forward to explore justice for victims of gender-based violence.

It is true that policemen cannot be everywhere to secure the safety of every woman at all times, but the fact that authorities have not arrested any of the perverts (at least to my knowledge) deeply angers me and many Kenyans. These people derive pleasure from mocking, tormenting and indignifying women. They are sadistic and sick, and have no place in our community of people.

In any case, men - or anyone else - have no right to dictate what women should wear. That is an individual choice protected by the Constitution.

It is good to note that finally the Government has formed a special task force to watch out for these criminals, but it is my view that this sole act, coming at this late hour when half a dozen women have been subjected to humiliation, will not make our streets any safer nor raise the confidence levels of our females.

If there is one issue that calls for public education it is this one. Instead of Ministries and Governors spending huge amounts of money sending condolence messages, printing Christmas cards and placing advertisements in the media congratulating leaders, they should use that money to educate Kenyans on moral values, human dignity and respect for individual liberties.

Men in particular should be taught to respect their mothers and daughters and to cherish them in whatever outfit they choose to wear as long as those outfits are trendy and decent.

And that is my say.

THE BUCK STOPS WITH YOU, MR. PRESIDENT UHURU KENYATTA.

Once again, Kenyans are asking questions about their safety.

And the questions are genuine.

Angered by the latest attack in Mandera in which 28 innocent Kenyans were murdered by Al Shabaab, the citizens are, once again, raising pertinent queries about their Government's ability or inability to deal with terrorism.

How did the terrorists cross the border from Somali without being detected? Did they pass through the common entry point into Mandera? If so, where were the security forces?

If they used panya routes, where was the intelligence service?

The backbone of any country is its security machinery. Without a versatile, effective internal security organ, no country can survive. Did the intelligence have prior information about the planned attack? If so, did it share they with other branches of government?

A senior politician in the affected region says he sent a warning weeks ago that the country was about to be attacked. Did the intelligence people get this information? If so, why didn't they act on it to stop the terrorists?

The Kenya Defence Forces has been in Somali since October 2011 with the mandate to pursue and destroy Al Shabaab camps and so thwart threats to Kenya's peace and stability. How come these killers are still able to travel all the way from their camps and enter the country without being detected? Where is our military in Somalia?

Another question. Are the top Government officials in charge of security up to the task? This question has been asked many times since the terror attack at Westgate Mall last September. Both the Cabinet Secretary and the Inspector General love repeating the same song: that the country is safe. But is it really? How can it be safe when people are killed everywhere?

There is a principle that the buck stops with the President. So, what does Uhuru Kenyatta plan to do now?

We find Ole Lenku and Kimaiyo easy targets for bashing, but the man most responsible for our security is none other than the President himself. All the cries of  "Lenku must go" are misplaced. His removal or resignation and that of the Inspector General of Police will result in nothing if the Commander-in-Chief is not willing to change tact and act tougher in the war against terrorism.

We cannot wait for outsiders to fight terrorism for us. The regional body IGAD is impotent and the African Union is uninterested.

It is up to Kenya to device measures - which should not exclude invasion of Somali - to get to the nerve centre of the Al Queda-affiliated Al Shabaab.

In the case of Mandera, the Deputy President Wiliam Ruto has confirmed that Kenyan troops pursued the killers into Somali and killed hundreds. An Al Shabaab spokesman has denied such reprisal took place. Who is wananchi to believe?

The weak and wobbling Mogadishu Government has neither the resources nor the political will to deal with the brigands within its borders. In effect, Somali cannot claim to be our ally in this war against terror.

While this is going on, the Kenya Government must also deal more ruthlessly with those in the country, who aid and abet recruitment of youths into terror groups.

Recent security operations in Mombasa - the hub of terrorist cells - including the closure of radical mosques and arrest of suspected killers, are commendable moves, but not quite enough.

If they are really committed to helping the Government, Moslem political and religious leaders must stop giving excuses and hiding behind religion. They must give the Government unconditional support in flashing out those in their midst who are tarnishing the name of Islam and destroying our country.

They cannot be bystanders or uninterested parties.

And that is my say.

KENYA: COAST POLITICAL UNITY A MIRAGE

For the umpteenth time, attempts to bring political unity to the Kenya coast have failed.

Not that I had expected a miracle from the meeting held this past weekend by our political leaders at a Kwale resort. I knew from the very beginning that nothing would come out of it.

And I am not even a pessimist. I am simply a realist who has been watching and participating in Coast politics for years.

Attended by most of the region's politicians but snubbed by some, including the supposed convener himself, MP Gideon Mung'aro, the meeting was not the first one called to discuss the subject of unity. Many similar meetings have been held in the past. All of them failed. They failed because of a multiplicity of reasons, ranging from racial, religious, ethnic and political differences as well as lack of trust, arrogance and selfishness.

There are also too many conflicting interests. Because of its rich and diverse resources, the Coast attracts all manner of characters who pour in huge amounts of money to influence the politics and economy of the region. Some of our political leaders are hostages to these wheeling and dealing characters who have their eyes on exploiting the port of Mombasa, raiding the vast land bank; and taking advantage of the great tourism opportunities. So, money and self-interest are also at the centre of conflicts amongst our leaders.

I have said it here, and I discuss it in my latest book, DASH BEFORE DUSK, which is available at your bookshop, that coastal unity is a mirage. Disunity collapsed powerful parties such as the Mombasa African Democratic Union and the Coast African Peoples Union in the 50s; has paralysed the Coast Parliamentary Group since the 80s; and continues to polarise the people on party grounds.

As other regions have matured and coalesced to emerge strong politically, economically and socially, the Coast - cradle of civilisation - has remained behind in everything imaginable.

Way back in 1997, I formed the Coast Development Group to try to encourage unity among the people of the region. It was infiltrated by Coast Special Branch officers and lasted only a few months. Then a few years later, I put together the Coast Leaders' Forum but this was hijacked by an elite group of privateers and replaced with the Coast Peoples' Forum. That too collapsed.

In between we have had more than a half a dozen political parties including the Islamic Party of Kenya, Shirikisho, the Federal Party, the National Labour Party, Mwangaza, Uzalendo, Kadu-Asili and the Republican Congress. All of them withered away and none became a national party.

In recent years, leaders have come up with all types of declarations aimed at uniting the people and forming a regional-based party. As we saw at Kwale, those declarations are not worth the paper they were written on. The meeting was heavily divided on party lines and the party issue was abandoned.

By announcing plans to form a vaguely-defined Commonwealth of Coast Counties, the leaders dropped the ball and admitted failure on broader issues.  The meeting was nothing more than a public relations exercise geared at hoodwinking the people that their leaders are working for them.

I stopped advocating for a Coastal-based political party some years ago after concluding it was a futile exercise.

Without unity at the top, there can be no unity at the bottom. And without unity at the bottom, a political party is not feasible.

My view therefore is that a Coast-based political party is untenable - not now; not for many years to come.

And that is my say.

THE TETANUS VACCINE CONTROVERSY: KENYA SHOULD SUSPEND THE CAMPAIGN.

When the HIV first surfaced in the early 1980s, a finger was pointed at chimpanzees in West Africa as the source.

That theory was given much credence by scientists at the Fourth International Conference on the HIV/AIDS in Sweden in 1988, which I attended. While they admitted that the first casualties of the killer virus were gay men in New York and California, the scientists nevertheless concluded that consumption of contaminated chimpanzee meat in Africa was the genesis of the disease.

In 1976, the first reports of Ebola emerged. Again, gorillas and chimpanzees around the Ebola River in the Democratic Republic of Congo were blamed. The primates, health experts said, caught the virus and then passed it on to Africans; the Africans then spread it on.

After much research, some scientists today no longer subscribe to that line of argument. They say Ebola did not emanate from Africa or anywhere else, but was created in a laboratory somewhere in the West.

So, is the continent of Africa blamed unfairly for the explosion of these pandemics? This is a question that remains to be answered, as the debate is still on. 

But what is clear is that an increasing number of global pharmaceutical companies are using developing countries as the testing ground for their experimental drugs; and the poor as the guinea pigs. These test drugs are causing a lot of pain to people.

Africa has also for decades been used as a dumping ground for all kinds of waste - from electronic waste (TVs, cell-phones and computers) to processed industrial waste - materials that continue to hurt people and the environment. 

That is why the tetanus vaccine controversy raging in Kenya is not misplaced. Could this be another way of hurting our people?

UNICEF and WHO, the two global organisations that are behind this vaccine and the Kenya Government, which is anxious to implement it, have failed to convince people that the drug is safe, and that it doesn't contain sterilisation chemicals as claimed by the Catholic Church. 

Kenya is not the only country asking questions. Nicaragua, Mexico and Philippines, are some of the countries, that have raised the red flag over the use of the tetanus vaccine.

In some places in the world, doctors have abandoned altogether administering the vaccine - along with vaccines against whooping cough and measles - because of what they say, is their disabling and deadly effects.

So the Church and the Kenya Catholic Doctors' Association are right to question the safety of this drug and demand its suspension.

After all, Kenya does not have a tetanus crisis, and the campaign is not urgent. 

The experiences of women who used Depo Provera, the contraceptive implant - before it was banned in Kenya some years ago - are still fresh in our minds. Let us not make the same mistake by making a rush decision to implement a vaccine whose implications are clearly obscure.

Let the government suspend the campaign until a thorough evaluation is conducted to determine its safety. This is not too much to ask.

And that is my say. 

KENYA OPPOSITION LEADERS HAVE BECOME INTOLERANT DICTATORS

The Night of the Long Knives is how I choose to describe what is going on in Kenya's opposition political parties.

In Germany in 1934, Hitler went on an orgy of killings, exterminating his left-wing opponents in order to protect Nazi interests.

Today, Kenya opposition party leaders are on a fling to rid their organisations of suspected political enemies; the so-called saboteurs, traitors and moles, for self-preservation and political opportunism.

Although what we see in Raila Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement; Kalonzo Musyoka's WIPER Party; and Musalia Mudavadi's Amani Coalition, cannot be compared to Hitler's despicable level of intolerance, it represents an unhealthy political environment for a country anxious to promote democratic ideals.

Expelling dissidents from parties the way these parties are doing, has nothing to do with indiscipline, in my opinion, and everything to do with preserving the lordship of party leaders. I say this because parties have inbuilt mechanisms to deal with wayward members and expulsion can only be the last resort.

Also, the fact that the accused subjects are not given a chance to defend themselves gives me this gathering sense that nothing is changing in the management of our parties.

These leaders think Kenya still belongs to the past when the only party KANU disciplined people over the most pedestrian of issues. In the 70s and 80s, it was treasonable to imagine the death of the President. Last week when ODM's Executive Director, Megerer Langat, whispered that the party was "dead"  and that "Raila was too old" he was physically manhandled and thrown out of a party caucus. That incident is almost similar to what happened to MPs Seroney and Shikuku in 1975 when they were bundled out of Parliament buildings and into detention for saying KANU was dead.

The key objective of any political party anywhere in the world is to win elections and form governments. A party must therefore spend the years between elections reviewing strategies, registering new members and promoting official agenda, not getting engulfed in petty games of witch-hunting.

Since losing the presidential race in 2013, Raila, Kalonzo and Mudavadi, have transformed themselves into intolerant dictators who - though preaching internal democracy - are unwilling to accept criticisms. If this is how they behave outside government, how can Kenyans trust them with the presidency?

Thus, by denying the so-called rebels a chance to ventilate through banter and open criticism, these leaders are only fueling instability in their organisations and actively and dangerously undermining the principles of internal party democracy.

And that is my say.