Musalia Mudavadi
Kenya is bleeding. It is not decent for playful political snowballs. We must avoid the temptation to mine insecurity to score political points as it would make us our own worst enemies.
The terrorists have us in a bind; divided, inattentive to the larger picture. Hours through the body count in Mpeketoni slaughter, we began another arduous body count at the nearby Poromoko area. God forbid we will still be blinded by sideshows as another slaughter is planned.
I have expressed my sincere belief that we are under invasion not just because of the current massacres in Mpeketoni. The reality is that we’ve been under terror siege since Al Qaeda-sponsored piracy in 2011. Direct al Shabaab attacks have left more than 250 dead since mid-2012.
Unknown is the toll from induced terror by those on the fridges of the economy - the ethnic militias, cattle rustlers, family feuds, muggers and the unemployed.
The village, road, urban centre, home, office, farm and factory are not safe. The rampant insecurity trigger is our inability as leaders to coalesce and connect in mitigating runaway poverty, youth unemployment, unaffordable cost of basic commodities; and incoherence in national cohesion and political exclusivity. These are the sparks that have ignited the political divide, metaphorically the national dialogue, with its attendant ethnic undertones.
My offer to mediate is borne out of the firm belief that when all the shenanigans are put on the table and the ego edges are pruned, the political skirmish is born out of deep feelings of social, economic and governance exclusion at the national level by a large segment of the population.
This is despite devolution because of the perception that the national cake is being hogged by a few. Focus on national cohesion by tinkering the governance inclusiveness could be the magic tablet for our disorientation. I’ll return to this theme later.
Suffice it that the bloodletting, whether by local or foreign elements, should not be supplemented by conspiracy theories that prejudice the search for comprehensive security mechanisms.
Calling each other names is sufficient cleansing of self-guilt, but it does not offer solutions. As we mourn the dead, condole the injured and ponder over loss of property, we must not allow the prescription of terrorism to increase fear, division, blame and disaffection overwhelm us. In this crisis, sober heads are required and must prevail.
There is no doubt that after the Westgate mall attack and increasing number of deaths from sporadic improvised explosive device attacks, a review of the country’s security architecture is due.
We have played to the gallery enough times on this issue. The twin Mpeketoni murderous incursion confirms the urgency for decisive action to refurbish our security apparatus that is ailing and horridly malfunctioning.
An option is to institute an independent non-partisan commission of inquiry to probe security structures and lapses in operations with the sole objective to overhaul.
Let’s not debate. Evidence overtime is that the security infrastructure is awry. Could be command is dispersed too widely into fiefdoms that defer effective coordination and require constitutional and legal amendments. Maybe we’ve sabotaged police reforms to the extent that we are now hostage to the uniformed men and women we hoped to clean.
We may also ignore prevalence of corruption over honest service to our peril. Maybe we have also been cut off from feeding into international terror intelligence system due to our own intransigence. These among other variables should inform the inquiry.
Prevarication in implementing ready-made mechanisms could also be our undoing. The President is on a publicity bilge extolling the virtues of shared responsibility on security by the citizenry. The participation of county governments in security is provided for in law.
Yet the national government administration at the county level, however, seems detailed to compete or check-mate the county governments. The President must now move from intent to participation of county government in security management.
To this extent, I’ve before proposed counties like Lamu be given special security deployment and economic funding to mitigate the impact of “hosting” terror operations.
The county is on its knees with the crash of the tourism industry due to marauding terror gangs. It should alarm us that in their latest “advisory” on Mpeketoni, the al Shabaab targets to intimidate the tourism sector.
Lamu county is unique. It is next to Somalia. It is the frontline of the fight against terror. It is a bridgehead for our security forces and target by murderous fundamentalist operations.
Lamu is a protected declared World Cultural Monument for mankind by Unesco, hence its attraction to tourists and terrorists. It is also the springboard of the mega Lapsset project.
That an attack can be brazenly carried out jeopardises its implementation as investors will be wary. Indeed, this attack could be deliberate sabotage to scuttle this infrastructural milestone. Despite this strategic value, Lamu receives the least (Ksh1.6 billion) county allocation revenue. We cannot loose Lamu and the country to terror.
The writer is Amani Coalition and UDF Party Leader.
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