Can extra-judicial killings be justified?

"Muslims must take the matter into their own hands, stand united against the Kuffar [non-Muslims] and take all necessary measures to protect their religion, their honour, their property and their lives from the enemies of Islam," ...........Al-Shabaab statement 

There was a time in this life that I was pretty naïve. These days I am little less foolish in the ways of the world. Over the years experience and especially the perils of running this political blog have taught me plenty.

The truth of the matter is that the world is not a simple black and white affair like so many seem to think. Most issues are pretty complex and some of the decisions that the chief executive of any nation has to take can be agonizing and very difficult. That is why things get worse when you have a man or woman who hates to make a decision leading a nation. A bad decision is quite often better than a good one that takes too long to make.
 
A terrible thing for a child to see (her father getting killed). 5 year old daughter of Aboud Rogo is consoled by her grand father Rogo's father in-law moments after the shooting.
 

This photo of controversial cleric Aboud Rogo was taken minutes after the shooting. His killing sparked off riots in Mombasa's Majengo and Kingorani areas and beyond. Even this morning the situation is still tense in Kenya's coastal city.

Yesterday a controversial Muslim cleric linked to Somalia's Al-Qaeda-allied Al-Shebab militants was assassinated. Aboud Rogo died in a most horrible way as his wife, child and father in law watched. A car overtook them on the Mombasa/Malindi Road near the famous Pirates night club and the gunman using what must have been an automatic weapon sprayed enough bullets to kill 10 men all directed at the driver’s seat. It is obvious that the job was executed by a trained marksman because there were no other fatalities in the car, only small easily treatable injuries amongst the other occupants of the car.

How many people in the country can execute that kind of shooting? Not many I can assure you and only those who have handled a firearm will understand what I am talking about. Don’t forget that the car was speeding past and slowed only momentarily for the shooting. So you have two moving vehicles and a target.

To cut a long story short the whole thing has extra-judicial assassination executed by the government written all over it.

It would be wrong for us to pass judgment over the Aboud Rogo case without all the facts before us, and especially the kind of details which are never made public for security reasons. And so let us leave Mombasa for now and imagine another typical scenario for a minute shall we.

Our local intelligence services gets wind of a terrorist who has crossed our usually porous borders from Somalia and is headed for Nairobi. It quickly becomes clear that this man is not visiting relatives in Eastliegh but is on a bombing mission to harm Kenyans. What should be done in such a case? If the man is arrested there will be no evidence to convict him successfully and revealing some of the information our security agents have in a court of law would compromise our intelligence gathering and monitoring methods and enable terrorists to evade detection much more easily in future. And so the kind of solution that would save Kenyan lives in such a case would be to execute the terror suspect before he gets to Nairobi. The press and Kumekucha informants witnessing police dragging the man out of a bus and pumping bullets into him on the side of the road would be aghast. But they would not have all the facts would they.

The terrible truth is that extra-judicial killings happen all over the world all the time and not just in Kenya. The nation of Israel for instant is a small nation with a few million Jews surrounded by hundreds of millions of hostile Arab enemies. In such a situation there is very little room for errors and numerous extra-judicial killings over the years have kept Israel safe.

Indeed these kind of killings have been recorded from as early as Biblical times.

But even more interesting is the current plan by the Obama administration to use technology in the form of Drones to execute “lawful” extra-judicial killings internationally and at home. Read about that controversial plan and the legal implications HERE.

All that brings us back to the big question. Are there times when extra-judicial killings can be justified?

How Raila’s Supporters Are Going To Lose Him The Election…

...Miguna Miguna beaten up in Mombasa

On the day of the general elections in 2007 my late dad behaved in a very strange way just before he left to vote. “That’s a Raila man,” he told my younger brother who was driving him to the polling station. His voice and tone were filled with disgust. He made sure that I was out of ear shot. Clearly he was upset because after our long discussions late into the night during those Christmas holidays, he knew which direction I was going to cast my vote. I also knew that he was going to vote Kibaki which he did.

I found this strange because we had had many political discussions and although in most of them we never agreed, he had accommodated my views without any problem. And so that Christmas holiday when I told him the direction the country was headed to in that general election it seems that his anger had been building up.

I found it very strange but 2 years later something else happened that reminded me of that incident. A friend who was doing some serious research on the ground told me how surprised he was that the Kamba people had no time for Raila Odinga the presidential candidate. And it had absolutely nothing to do with Kalonzo Musyoka being his competitor. It had more to do with what appeared to be a deep-seated disdain for the Luo community. Clearly the propaganda campaigns carried out during the Kenyatta administration against the Luo had worked wonders amongst the older generation Kambas and there was no way you were going to change their minds.

Miguna Miguna running for dear life in Mombasa yesterday surrounded by an angry mob. He lost his trademark hat, a shoe and some buttons from his coat and shirt. Reports have insisted that he was attacked by youths. Odd because most of the goons (belonging to the most democratic political party in Kenya) here do not look very young to me. (photo courtesy of the Standard newspaper).

Many patriotic Kenyans (including this blogger) have been working very hard to change the dented image of the Luo community and their politics believing that Raila Odinga is one Kenyan who deserves the presidency. Now all that work has just been flashed down the toilet in the twinkling of an eye. Thanks to the behavior of some hooligans who earlier today roughed up and assaulted Miguna Miguna at the Royal Castle Hotel. According to my sources in Mombasa, Miguna is lucky to be alive because had the police acted a split second later than they did we would now be eulogizing Miguna.

What is this?

Does it mean that if Raila becomes the president of this country and I criticize his policies I will not be able to go round without a police escort? After all the sacrifices made by many Kenyans have we returned our politics to the stone age where we beat up people whom we do not agree with? Are these the supporters of a candidate who claims to be running on a reform agenda? Are these the kind of reforms we spilled Kenyan blood for?

My late dad must be turning in his grave now and chuckling. I can hear him tell me; “I told you so.” And the same is happening with all those Kenyans who were almost convinced that Raila can be president of this country. The primitive view of the Akamba people and many others has been vindicated.

To make matters worse Raila the presidential candidate is silent. His silence is extremely loud and it is speaking to Kenyans in a loud voice. He is telling us that this kind of behavior is okay. And in fact he may be relying on such supporters to help him with his political agenda if and when he becomes president.

Would you vote for such a presidential candidate?