Masters of Duplicity, Perils of Parallel Actions

The term figurehead had never acquired a poignant meaning in Kenyan political lexicon. The two centres of power are really working overtime to create a false picture of harmony. Well, evidence and history will leave those young or naive enough to trust the gimmicks really disappointed.

The last few weeks have witnessed tough talk and directives that are designed to be ignored and never followed. Only in Kenya do you have a commander-in-chief issuing an edict for immediate eviction but no subsequent actions by his subordinated to effect the same. We heard the confirmation that Migingo is Kenya’s ruled by Uganda who have declared no census on the island come next Monday.

And the evil of parallel authorities serving selfish interest doesn’t stop there. On paper there is only one Kenya Police but the reality confirms two forces. While Major Ali heads the regular police wing, ex-Nakuru DC Kinuthia Mbugua is busy arming and modernizing the AP wing for obvious reasons. Besides parallel commands, the two bosses owe their loyalty to different individuals and not the institutions they lead.

Misplaced enthusiasm
Meanwhile the PM has been handed a sturdy velvet noose. Poor man! He is meant to coordinate and supervise some painful and unpopular activities by ministers already scheming for 2012. How I would love to be proved wrong but I fear not.

Raila’s enthusiasm will be severely fatigued and frustrated by vested interests. The history of such a disappointment is just months past when he was reminded that Muhoho is not ordinary. Meanwhile let living in serial denial mutate into all its known and unknown variants.

Evil Trinity: Contempt, Impunity and Immunity

Let the truth be told, the unspoken utmost fear is President Kibaki being held personally responsible as commander-in-chief for all the post election violence. When the security machinery kills RIOTERS, the buck stops at the Commander-in-Chief who must have overtly or covertly given those orders.

You can choose to bury your head in the sand in denial all you care but only one person MUST be held responsible for the breakdown in law and order and the subsequent bloodshed in the control of lawlessness. Only the state has monopoly of violence. Hiding under two-wrongs-make-a-right facade is a cheap short at security in numbers gimmick.

Apologists to the present regime can hide under truncated ICC mandate but not for long. Most Kenyans are comfortable serially living national lies. We are allergic to making hard decisions no matter the challenge facing us. What to do, someone else (read The Hague) must come and clean up our messes.

We can circumscribe all the beautiful circular motions we want but twisting the nasty truth will not make it vanish. The NSIS saw it coming and promptly warned the relevant offices. And what did they do? Well, the script had been crafted and rehearsed. No amount of dire warning would let the National Security Council (no pizes for guessing its members) change tact or give in. Kenya has its owners and we all unwittingly dissects the effects ignoring the 2007 cause.

Settling for a suboptimal compromise singularly crafted to please selfish competing interests of tribal warlords is a kin to neatly bottling a deadly apocalypse. Soon the deceptive threads will give way and the red river of blood will flow fast and furious. But scoundrels would prefer to baptize a grave as a rut oblivious of the fact that the true difference lies only in their dimensions.

Evil reign
The ghosts born in December 2007 are growing bigger and won’t exit our borders any time soon. Faint hearts bred on deception would cheaply brand that whining. Well, living in self-denial is the genesis of self-destruction.

We speak of impunity as if it is some alien object from outer space. Nothing epitomizes impunity more than the obtuse contempt Cabinet shoved down the throat of Kenyans by opting for the phantom TJRC headed by pretenders and peddlers of diplomatic/peace CVs.

The cabinet is simply telling Waki and the selfish, querulous bunch of MPs who the boss is - UTA DO? What is more, the cabinet’s fear for MPs is an extrapolation of bastardized democracy as expertly engineered during the 2007 polls.

The MPs may have thought they had the executive by the balls. Not quite when the executive is the alpha and omega as originators of impunity. Even Imanyara’s well-meaning manoeuvre to set up a local tribunal independently by parliament while bypassing the presidency is a kite without wings. The hitherto absolute and abject fear of the Tenth Parliament has been turned on its head. No surprise here.

Of whiners and pretenders
Pretender here often hide under platitudes in re-defining ICC mandate oblivious of the naked fact that their poorly disguised concept of presidential immunity is a dead end under international crime context. Refusing to look the ugly truth in the face only succeeds in postponing the inevitable explosion.

While the genuine IDPs remain relegated to the footnotes of present leadership, we shamelessly applaud their fraudulent political schemes. If not fattening an opponent before political slaughter, our political masters dream of unholy alliances of tribal warlords. Well, the joke is squarely resting on our heads.

The evil trinity of impunity, contempt and immunity is what accurately defines the mindset of our past and present rulers. All else are sideshows and acts meant to propagate the same selfish interests. The saving grace it that the wishes of majority of Kenyans for The Hague trials will eventually come. Only that the present pretenders are expensively buying time, but not forever.