By Donald B Kipkorir
"Watch you and pray, lest you enter into temptation.
The spirit truly is willing, but the flesh is weak.
Mark 14:38
There is palpable sense of urgency in the air. Kenyans want to know who imports narcotics and other psychotropic substances to Kenya, how they are re-exported, who deals with the local distribution and which public officials are in the payroll of the drugs mafia. The recent investigative reports by Dennis Onsarigo and Mohammed Ali of KTN’s Inside Story and Jicho Pevu were a sensation and lit up the blogosphere. We saw the cries of the widows and children of those who were killed for standing up in the way of drugs traffickers. The time is now when this matter has to be dealt with, openly, expeditiously and judiciously. But, whom do we entrust the duty?
Parliament cannot investigate the drug mafia as some of its members are suspects. In any event, our Parliament does not have an illustrious history of non-partisan and detailed investigative inquiry. From History books, we read that when JM Kariuki (1929-1975) was killed in March 2, 1975, Parliament constituted the Elijah Mwangale-led Select Committee, which in a record time handed its most candid report in June 6, 1975. Those are days long gone and never replicated by our successive parliaments. Our current Parliament is ripe with highly divisive politics as the MPs focus on shifting alliances of 2012 elections. And its reports are never acted upon as they are left to collect dust in its archives.
And a Commission of Inquiry under The Commissions of Inquiry Act, Cap 102? I dare say that commissions of inquiry are meant to reward friends of the sitting President with short-term but highly lucrative jobs. All commissions under presidents Moi and Kibaki have gobbled hundreds of millions of shillings with no tangible results. The commissions are enjoined by law to make mere recommendations. Their reports are not binding on anyone. Reports by commissions of inquiry are in essence long love letters to the President by commissioners thanking him for appointing them. We cannot countenance a commission of inquiry under this Act to investigate drug trafficking. It will be a journey in voyeurism and personal enrichment with nothing for Kenyans.
What about the police as currently constituted under The Police Act, Cap 84? Many will find this hilarious. How can you ask monkeys to guard the forests? No organised criminal activity of any kind will take place without the police being complicit. The police intelligence network is such that they have to be in the know. The cardinal pillar of a functioning government is its exclusive monopoly of the instruments of force and intelligence-gathering and police is the tool for its enforcement. Police Commissioner Mathew Iteere has allegedly appointed a multi-sectoral task force to re-open the files of that infamous cocaine haul. I do not know on what legal grounds he did that.
The functions of the current police as set out in Article 244 of the Constitution don’t include initiating crime investigations. This power was taken away and given to the Director of Public Prosecutions under Article 157 (4) of The Constitution. His task force is a waste of public funds as Keriako Tobiko will not act on its findings. And the Police Commissioner is an interested party having been the GSU Commandant at the material time. Let him be honourable enough and defer to the DPP. And his declaration of innocence is premature.
We have one option only; the National Police Service Commission (NPSC) as established by The National Police Service Commission Act, 2011 and anchored in Article 246 of The Constitution. The NPSC is yet to be constituted but shall soon. Its membership must represent the highest ideals that we aspire. I’m glad its selection panel is chaired by Hassan Omar Hassan. Its first task should be to commence Inquiry onto the drugs mafia in Kenya with a view to eradicating it.
For long, America’s successive ments had been made impotent by the growing power of the mafia. It was only during the short presidency of John F Kennedy [1917-1963] lasting from January 20, 1961, to November 11, 1963, that the American Mafia was neutered.
Mafia was introduced to America in 19th century by Italians from Sicily. With time, it spread across America but remained ingrained in New York and Chicago. It succeeded beyond expectations and survived for so long because its membership was bound by shared Italian ancestry and omerta, the code of silence. US Senate Permanent Sub-Committee on Investigations under Senator John L. McClellan (1896-1977) led an inquiry into the Mafia in America in 1963, in what is known as either the McClellan or Valachi Hearings. The star witness was Joseph Valachi, a Mafia turn-coat from the Genovese mafia family of New York. As a result of the hearings, America passed landmark legislations, which made it easier to have electronic surveillance of suspected mafia members, and also lowering the legal thresh-hold for indicting on mafia activities. Because of these hearings and legislations, America no longer has such powerful capo di tutti capi like Al Capone [1899-1947] or John Joseph Gotti (1940-2002).
As a people, we should not allow an Africanised mafia to take root in Kenya. The mafia in Kenya can easily mutate from controlling the Government and its structures to being the Government. The allegations by the US Government that some MPs are members of the drugs mafia is a cause for consternation. We need the establishment of the NSPC to be completed so that they can begin the onerous and patriotic duty of unmasking all drug barons, dealers, their networks and crimes committed. The cries of the widowed and the orphaned must be heard. Drug mafia members have to face justice, here and now.
—The author is an Advocate of the High Court.
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