Michael Mundia Kamau
P.O. Box 58972
00200 City Square
Nairobi
Kenya

2nd October 2005

     LAWLESSNESS AND DISORDER

The manner in which “Sunday Times” writer, David
Ochami was arrested and arraigned in court for his
article “Coups in Africa do not occur out of nothing”,
appearing in the “Sunday Times” of 25th September
2005(http://www.timesnews.co.ke/25sep05/nwsstory/opinion.html),
is an act of State terrorism and intimidation.
Ochami’s bitter article addressed the sensitive matter
of mounting disenchantment, displeasure and discord by
the people of Kenya, against prevailing harsh
socio-economic and political conditions in Kenya. In
principle, Ochami cautioned and reprimanded the
government for it’s ineffective and insensitive
handling of the troubling, lawless and uncertain
situation in the country. Ochami’s was not a threat,
but a caution, and the government is best placed
addressing the sensitive matters raised.

Much as the subject is avoided, the likelihood of a
mutiny is as real in Kenya as elsewhere in the world,
because mutinies, coups and uprisings are about
interests. Those who were awake and heard Senior
Private Hezekiah Ochuka’s eloquent and articulate
early morning radio address to the nation on the then
Voice of Kenya on the fateful morning of the failed
coup attempt of 1st August 1982, will recall Ochuka’s
reference to “the economy being in shambles” and a
further reference to “government ministers growing
rich overnight”. 23 full years have passed and we are
in exactly the same situation that Ochuka made
reference to on 1st August 1982.

The lawlessness and desperation currently prevailing
in and out of the government raises real concerns of a
nation about to be torn apart by conflict,
disagreement and despair. The government has terribly
failed to exhibit the unity and purpose required of it
during this crucial period of transition. The very
government that is required to uphold the rule of law,
is openly breaking it. On Wednesday, 28th September
2005, Makadara MP Reuben Ndolo and Embakasi MP David
Mwenje, took the law into their hands and unlawfully
stormed and attempted to disrupt a meeting that was
being held by their political rivals at Nairobi’s City
Cabanas Hotel. Two days later on Friday, 30th
September 2005, the State equally took the law into
it’s own hands by ignoring a Magistrate’s grant of
bail to both Ndolo and Mwenje, and re-arresting both
on hurriedly prepared trumped up charges. The very
cause of the dually instituted illegalities that were
perpetrated by both MPs and the State, is in itself a
contravention of the law, because the Electoral
Commission of Kenya has clearly gazetted that
campaigns for the November 21st 2005 Constitutional
referendum, are to begin on 21st October 2005. Almost
the entire Kenyan cabinet and the entire Kenyan
legislature, therefore require to be arraigned in
court on the same charge of incitement as that of
David Ochami, amongst several other dishonourable
charges.

One of the major causes that led to Milton Obote being
deposed as President of Uganda on January 25th 1971,
was Obote’s open violation of the law. Former Ugandan
dictator Idi Amin, then key in the Ugandan military,
was present when Prime Minister Obote dismissed a
question on the legality of Kabaka Mutesa II’s removal
as President of Uganda, by Obote’s famous and fatal
declaration that the Ugandan constitution “was a mere
piece of paper”, followed by Obote’s action of
throwing the Ugandan constitution into a waste paper
basket.

There are distinct similarities between Obote’s Uganda
and Kenya today. The current Kenyan leadership in it’s
entirety, is violating the law with impunity, in the
same way that Obote did, setting disastrous precedents
and sending out all the wrong signals. The damage that
this has caused and continues to cause, weighs in
equal measure to any effort that will be made to
rectify this extremely troubling situation.

Mutinies, revolts, coups and uprisings, are a fact of
life and the Kenyan government is better placed using
the vast machinery at it’s disposal to address this
reality, rather than intimidate the general populace.
During the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962, US
President John F. Kennedy, faced the real prospect of
a coup and the real prospect of World War III, when
the US Air Force directly violated a presidential
decree to hold fire, by attacking Soviet warships off
the Cuban coast. Kennedy was wild with rage. The
Soviet military also mutinied against executive orders
of calm given by then Soviet leader, Nikita Khruschev,
and rapid intense behind the scenes diplomacy on both
sides, averted World War III.

The entire Kenyan leadership is obsessed with person
interests and stranglehold on power, as the entire
country goes to waste, and as the entire nation is
engulfed in tension and uncertainty. Here lies the big
part of Kenya’s problems today, and not in a
journalist pointing out the likely devastating
consequences that could arise out of such a situation.



Michael Mundia Kamau