Mukhisa Kituyi. Photo/FILE
By MUKHISA KITUYI
Posted Saturday, April 28 2012 at 19:59
Posted Saturday, April 28 2012 at 19:59
This past week has, for the first time, seen clear statements by President Kibaki, Prime Minister Raila Odinga, and Environment minister Chirau Mwakwere that government will not tolerate a gang which purports to seek secession from Kenya.
This statement should have come much earlier and more clearly. The reasons for past prevarication are as unfortunate as they are irresponsible.
Every time Mombasa Republican Council (MRC) adherents have declared their commitment to secession or carried out brazen criminal acts, leaders have responded with baby gloves.
Criticism is preceded with a declaration that the MRC have some legitimate cause. It has been emphasised that the group has supporters whose votes must not be lost.
Law unto themselves
As politicians prevaricate and civil society goes silent, MRC appear to think that they are now a law unto themselves.
Three times they have raided facilities of IEBC and destroyed electoral material being used in test runs for elections. On one occasion they snatched a gun from a police officer.
Recently they have attempted to force their way into court and thrown stones, which killed a person in the process.
Increasingly they are rolled out on television telling us how they do not care a bit for any politician. How long can we pretend that all is well when this criminality is escalating?
It is true that every region of this country has poor alienated and disadvantaged people.
It is even true that parts of coastal Kenya have more than their fair share of these groups. It is also true that the oppressed and exploited have a right to raise their concerns.
But this does not excuse a crime of the proportions of treason. Kenyan leaders are forsworn to defend and protect the territorial integrity of our country by any means necessary.
And Kenya’s disciplined forces know that they will be placed in the path of harm to crush any group that pretends to hive any part of this country away.
A responsibility of any self-respecting leader is to tell their followers that they have a hard earned right to agitate for justice and a dignified life.
They have to show their followers that they have a right to petition Parliament in case of a unique injustice they suffer.
The people of North Eastern Kenya are taking this route currently. But leaders must also let their followers know that their rights to agitate have statutory limits.
The gangs of youths from Kwale and Kilifi calling themselves MRC must be told two things. First, if secession was possible, it would not resolve the poverty and unemployment they link to their grievances.
Land injustice
Certainly it would not settle the land injustice they suffer since the core of it are absentee landlords not living upcountry but in the Middle East.
But more importantly, anybody who harbours delusions that he will use a few snatched G3 and AK47 guns and improvised explosive devices to fight for separation from Kenya is looking for a short trip to the hereafter.
We live in a time when criminal gangs operate in the grey zone of semi-recognition. The way we listen to Mungiki leaders like some sages of national revival, and the similar treatment being accorded representatives of MRC shows a country whose political culture is in dire need of an anchor.
Are we beholden to these goons so much that we can allow them to blackmail us all or is there such a high premium on every vote that we can pretend to trade off national territorial integrity for electoral support?
All friends of the youths of Kilifi and Kwale must tell them the bare truth without pretentious preambles. Kenya will always remain one country.
If reason does not implant this truth in their heads, members of the disciplined forces will demonstrate this reality.
When a country starts depending on its disciplined forces to affirm the futility of secessionist agitation, then the leaders of such a country have failed in their singular responsibility of affirming the integrity of their nation and the limits of democratic wonderings by its disaffected citizens.
Dr Kituyi is a director of the Kenya Institute of Governance mkituyi@kigafrica.org
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