The more one listens to what comes out of the mouths of politicians and senior public officers, the more one is convinced that a key requirement for admission into those rarefied ranks is leaving your brain at home.
The regime of President Daniel arap Moi had semi-literate figures like Kariuki Chotara, Shariff Nassir, Mulu Mutisya, Kuria Kanyingi, Wilson Leitich frothing at the mouth with violent rhetoric in defense of the regime.
Fellows plucked out of obscurity and granted great power and wealth specialised in accusing anybody who didn’t toe the straight and narrow path of being an enemy of development, agent of foreign masters, anti-Nyayo element, saboteur, traitor, and so on.
Unlike Mr Moi, President William Ruto has very educated flunkies at his beck and call. They include professors, lawyers, engineers, doctors, accountants and other academics, professionals and corporate executives drawn from a wide spectrum of disciplines.
However, it is evident that the likes of Deputy President Kithure Kindiki, Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen, National Assembly Majority Leader Kimani Ichung’wah and many other dishonorable fellows in President Ruto’s corner are no improvement on the uneducated regime defenders of ages past.
At a time when the President faces revolt by a GenZ lot fed up with so many things going wrong under his watch, all one hears from those purporting to defend him as that same tired script. Instead of understanding and responding with some thought to the cause of discontent, all they can do is parrot nonsense about tribalists and anarchists.
It does not strike them as self-defeating that marches called to protest police killings are met with more killings.
When the nation is mourning another 16 or so youth gunned down last week, President Ruto and his mouthpieces come across as gloating. They are celebrating use of lethal force and promising more to come. They are justifying the killings on the patently false narratives that the demonstrations called on the first anniversary of the Gen Z protests were part of plot to overthrow the government.
Mr Murkomen, who otherwise comes across as an intelligent and reasonable man until he jumps atop the political soapbox, scored a massive own goal with what were rightly interpreted is “shoot on sight” instructions to police officers. No amount of back-pedalling and protests that his statement was taken out of context will undo the damage.
President Ruto and Prof Kindiki have also been all over the place also pledging, like the Interior CS, to protect police officers who turn their guns on unarmed citizens.
Not all police officers are foolish. The men and women in uniform have witnessed in recent days their comrades suspended from duty and hauled before judges for crimes carried out on behalf of or at behest of their political patrons or service superiors. Neither the President, his deputy, the Interior CS, nor the National Assembly Leader of Majority have been seen anywhere near the courts defending trigger-happy cops. Even the police top command has let junior officers who commit crimes fry on their own.
Unacceptable level of violence
This is time for all police officers to understand they are not constrained to obey illegal orders. They must also not lose sight of the fact that when the s**t hits the fan, they will be thrown under the bus by those same politicians urging them to kill fellow citizens.
Instead of continuing threats, what we should be hearing from the political leadership is pledges to investigate and take action on the killings recorded last week.
We expect proper investigations into the unacceptable level of violence, looting and arson seen during the protests, and action against the perpetrators. Those who despoiled a solemn day of remembrance, be they protesters or opportunistic criminals, must be made to face the law. So should the goons hired by politicians to infiltrate legitimate protests and cause mayhem.
If there is evidence that violence was sponsored by former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua and other opposition leaders out to topple the government, they too must face the music, for such acts amount to nothing short of treason.
However, any decisions to arrest and charge must come from competent and professional institutions, not political posturing from fellows excited by their own shrill voices.
One problem is that supposedly educated leaders given great responsibility to steer the nation seem to have suspended their faculties, and can only compete to match violent rhetoric from the likes of President Ruto’s personal assistant Farouk Kibet and MPs Oscar Sudi and William Kamket; the closest approximations today to the coarse rabble-rousers and warmongers of the one-party dictatorship.
