Michael Mundia Kamau 

P.O. Box 58972 00200 City Square 

Nairobi Kenya 

14th December 2003 

MINISTERS AND MP HELD IN SWOOP ON PROSTITUTES 

The lead story of the “Sunday Nation” of 14th December 2003, “Ministers and MP held in swoop on prostitutes”, is a truly bizzare and tragic indictment against the Kenya government. The whole incident need not have been reported in light of the verdict that “the cabinet minister, the assistant minister, the MP and the seven wealthy businessmen caught in the swoop, be released to save them, their families and the government from embarrassment”. It makes nonsense of the government’s stated policy on everything, especially the zero telerance policy on law breaking. On page 28 of the same “Sunday Nation”, there is a full page advertisement under the banner “Together we can wipe AIDS”, in which none less than President Mwai Kibaki is featured. AIDS has a direct link to the swoop, a point that is extensively covered in the story.

Why was it necessary to fine 100 of the 102 commercial sex workers netted in the operation ? Why weren’t they accorded the same amnesty so as to also “save them, their families and the government from embarrassment” ? Why not grant all law breakers in Kenya a general amnesty ? Out of the 102 netted prostitutes, it was found that 14 were from the Kenya Utalii College, 12 from the Kenya Institute of Mass Communication, 7 from the the Kenya Medical Training College, 3 from Strathmore University, and 11 from the University of Nairobi. The Kenya Utalii College, the Kenya Institute of Mass Communications, the Kenya Medical Training College and Strathmore University are all distinguished institutions and are not likely to treat the matter lightly. Internal investigations will be conducted and expulsions are likely to follow. The affected students are not likely to benefit from the amnesty granted to the cabinet minister, the assistant minister, the MP and the seven wealthy businessmen. The affected students are no less to blame, but they shall bear the brunt. The University of Nairobi’s reputation is at a low and the 11 affected students are not likely to be the target of stern reprisals. University of Nairobi students were implicated in car-jackings and murders earlier in the year, which is an indication of how low matters have sunk at the campus.

The partiality with which the NARC government continues to approach governance, is what ruined this country in the first place. This past week, Samuel Gichuru, the former Managing Director of the giant Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC), has featured prominently in the media, being hounded mercilessly for being implicated in a corruption report. The media also reported that former President Moi is among a retinue of former high ranking government officials and other high flyers who may next year appear before the ongoing Goldenberg commission of inquiry, following their linking to the scam by witnesses at the commission. Several Kenyan judges were this year also purged in an ongoing clean up exercise at the judiciary. Why doesn’t the government also let free all the above individuals inorder to “save them, their families and the government from embarrassment” ?

The Kenya Police and the “Sunday Nation” really ought to know better, and should have spared the entire country this debacle.

Michael Mundia Kamau