Oscar Foundation Free Legal Aid Clinic-Kenya has confronted the Government with researched and gory detail on the massacre of 8040 Kenyans during the operation to wipe out Mungiki. And to make matters worse, the group adds that a further 4,070 people had gone missing as security forces tried to wipe out the Mungiki sect.
Whatever the case, killing that many Kenyans for whatever reason is a massacre by any other name. And given the explosive emotions accompanying such events one can safely bet that our Government is deluding herself in bottling a time bomb waiting to explode.
No form of extrajudicial killing is warranted in any civilized society. The Mungiki menace is one thing fertilized by our scoundrel es for politicians. Add to this the fuel of corruption in the police force and inept judicial system then you get a lethal recipe for chaos.
The next 3+ weeks will see the demand of these gangs skyrocket as politician seek to sort their opponents out. And such is the unwitting watering of the cancer that will outgrow its funders and take us hostage to their murderous ways thereafter. Speak of sharpening the spear only to end up having its nice sharp blades kissing your skull. Are we steadily grinding into a country at war with itself?
I have miserably failed to take a position on these unfoldings. It is unacceptable when people take others' lives but then what would be the best way for the government to handle this craze?
ReplyDeleteWe have a judicial system that no one trusts.All we need to do to understand the ruthlessness is to have another look at those clips when runaway lunatics going by the name Mungiki lost their heads and went about town chopping off little children's heads. At that particular juncture, the relatives of those beheaded or anybody with a heart for that matter would have rubbished any suggestion about any SUSPECT being subjected to the due process. Instant justice was the standard prescription at the time. Kenya was getting to a breaking point. This coupled with the mess that the court system has turned out to be, execution of suspects meant sense because it instills fear on any Mungiki adherent out there.
Someone said it is better to set 99guilty people free than to lock up one innocent person. Nobody has any right to shoot anybody without trying them in a court of law. We all know it. But dont we also know that desperate times call for desperate measures? I am thinking if this ruthlessness was not vested on the suspects, the mungiki mahyem would have gotten out of hand. People can now go about their business with considerable calmness. It is less evil to wipe out all suspects than to let them go on with their mediocrity unabated.
That is no excuse though. The government of Kenya has a duty to ensure the security of the people. In fact that is their primary duty. If they cannot guarantee the security of Kenyans,something the head of government, Mwai Kibaki himself is well aware is high up there in the bill of rights, the most honourable thing for them to do is to resign. The opposition has called ours a police state and that is in my opinion not far from the truth. I do not understand why we had that very acrimonious 'radical surgery' on the judiciary if the same incompetence still persists. Kenyans deserve not just the apprehension of suspects but also an effeciently exhaustive trial and punishment of perpetrators of violence. We pay the judges a lot of money to ensure no innocent person bears the brunt of executioners and no guilty person continues to be at large. Five years is a long time and Kibaki and his administration have obviously failed in this one. They should tell us why they feel they will be able to restore order in Kenya given another term in office. In my opinion, they dont have what it takes to do it.
for the first time I think I agree with vikii...when mugiki were beheading innocent pple and sutting them into pieces...i honestly dont think I heard as much hue and cry as now when it is acknowledged that the ploce dealt with them.
ReplyDeleteMungiki are a powerful political organisation with links in hich places and a semmingly endless stream of resources.U cant possibly put more than 500 of them in jail without some sort of intervention from sumwher.
In the case of Mungiki its kill them or they kill you...as was illustrated when they killed police men on patrol.
I feel nothing for any mungiki who has been killed by police....thousands of lives of innocent pple have now been saved...not to mention that we several steps closer to living without robbery with violence and extortion,drugs and cannibalism.
Accusing the police for killing mungiki...is like trying to punish God for destroying the devil.Its Absolutely stupid
You are right Vikii. The problem lies with the people we bestoy and pay to be RESPONSIBLE. Sometimes it makes you ask whether we are cursed as a nation to under perform. It has nothing to do with secterain politics, our leaders in general think we are collectively fools and walk on us all the time.
ReplyDeleteOn Mungiki you are not alone of being in a dilemma of not knowing whether to shout thieve when you meet a scoundrel or met instant justice. One nobody has any right to terorise others. Killing fellow Kenyans to further your selfish end is inexcusable. But then summarily killing innocent Kenyans to sent 'chiling' message to Mungiki is eqully wrong -2wrongs never made a right, ama?
On better freeing 99 guilty rather than executing one innocent it amount to pedestria analogue of type one and two error. It depends on what you fancy, alpha or 1-beta?
I too have no idea what the 'radical surgery' of the judiciary meant. How many of you have legally gone out on a Friday night drinking spree only to end up spending the entire weekend at Central police station? Since when does walking down the street in an un-tucked shirt subject you to a possible three or more months in remand? It is change in such simple everyday things that the common man is yet to taste. In my opinion, in as much as we should respect the judicial system, we need one worth our trust. Remember, the salaries of these judges and conduits are being paid by you and I.
ReplyDeleteThe Mungiki mayhem is just an example. A truly radically changed judicial system would have seen about 8,000 folks breathe today. These are the national failures that we should all, in a party-less kind of way, voice concern about.