Kenya is officially a terrorist State. Across a large swathe of eastern and northern Kenya—what used to be known as the North Eastern Province and Contiguous Districts in the Coast and Eastern Province—al-Shabaab terrorists run free.
From Lamu and Tana River counties in the Coast region, northwards to Garissa, Wajir and Mandera counties in the northern tip, heavily armed terrorists roam unchallenged. We can no longer pretend that al-Shabaab is a problem of incursions from neighbouring Somalia. The murderous group is now well encamped in Kenya where local cells operate with impunity.
Then in the northern regions abutting Ethiopia, the counties of Mandera and Wajir and westward to the expansive Marsabit County, and further west still to Turkana County bordering both South Sudan and Uganda, assorted bandits, battle rustlers and ethnic militias have the freedom to roam, plunder, rape and kill. Much of the terror visited on the people include cross-border incursion from various armed bands in neighbouring countries who find Kenya a convenient place to carry out their activities.
Then from Turkana in Kenya’s north west corner, it’s a sweep southwards across West Pokot, Samburu and all the way down to Elgeyo-Marakwet, Baringo, Laikipia and Isiolo counties, parts of which even security forces fear to tread as brigands have been given freedom to terrorise the vast terrain.
The terror, by the way, is not limited to the country’s remote extremities. It spreads right down to regions that we often do not recognise actually make the geographical centre of Kenya. When we talk of Central region, we often think of Murang’a, Nyeri and maybe even Nakuru, but the real centre is actually around regions we mistakenly take as parts of far north, such as Baringo and Isiolo counties.
So why are our vaunted security forces who have cut the head of al-Shabaab in Somalia, decimated criminal gangs as far away as Haiti and ended civil wars in Sierra Leone, Liberia and the former Yugoslavia, been unable to contain terror groups wreaking havoc across more than half of Kenya’s land mass?
Because they have been diverted to tackle a new vastly more dangerous breed of terrorism which isn’t limited to blowing up Kenya Defence Forces armoured car patrols with roadside bombs, shooting up remote police stations or fighting rival ethnic group and stealing cattle in ungoverned outpost.
This new breed of terrorist is youthful, tech-savvy and based in the capital city of Nairobi and towns in adjacent regions. He is not armed with suicide vests, assault rifles, missile launchers, grenades or improvised explosive devices.
His weapon of the choice is mobile phone or laptop on which he shares dangerous ideology on social media. The mobile phone also comes in handy as he takes selfies while chanting slogans and taunting police in the streets.
He is not interested in armed raids at shopping malls or frontal attacks on security forces. He prefers transparent actions rather than stealth and violence, making a carnival of song and dance in street protests dedicated to calling out government excesses. The new terrorist has found a ready ally in the political opposition, civil society, religious organisations and other groupings that support constitutional safeguards for free speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of association and the right to picket.
The government of President William Ruto and Orange Democratic Movement leader Raila Odinga has declared practice of all those supposed constitutional rights to be terrorist offences. It is a terrorist act to imagine, encompass, devise or otherwise think of ousting the President at the next elections.
It is a terrorist offence of the highest magnitude to post dangerous social media messages advocating the same. It is the height of terrorism to march in the streets protesting corruption, police abductions and extrajudicial executions, the cost of living or the primitive accumulation excesses of the parasitic classes.
Those offences, especially where provoking the fragile sensibilities of police officers by abusive taunts aggressive behaviour, are punishable by a bullet to the head. But feeling a bit charitable, the President recently suggested kneecapping as a more lenient alternative, a concession roundly rejected by some of his more rabid, bloodthirsty mouthpieces.
It is only insecure leaders afraid of their own people who will apply anti-terrorism laws to suppress legitimate dissent, or declare as “satanic” church leaders who side with the people.
It is only outright dictatorships where the entire national security apparatus and the criminal justice system can be subverted to defend the Deep State against the citizens. That is the real terrorism.
