We must unite and defeat efforts to turn Kenya into a republic of fear

Kenyans are a traumatised lot these days. There seems to be a problem everywhere you look. Danger lurks behind every corner. Once upon a time, we only used to read stories of woe from the North Country. But today, laws are broken everywhere. By everyone. All the time.

From the villager and hoi polloi to the high and mighty, the rule of law has become a bad joke. So-called "cattle rustling". Carjackings. Kidnappings. Murder gangland style. Disappearances. Illegal arrests and jailings for "insulting" people in power — "big people". Unexplained deaths — including of top honchos. Yet the Jubilee government seems unable, or unwilling, to end this tyranny of violence. Methinks Kenya has become a republic of fear.

Let me elaborate in case you live on Mars. I am prompted to write this piece because of the arrest of blogger Abraham Mutai on charges of "insulting big people in government" and "causing anxiety without evidence". Wow — that's a bunch of hooey. This Kafkaesque language is reminiscent of George Orwell's 1984, also known as Nineteen Eighty-Four. That dystopian novel, written in 1949, depicts a state so totalitarian and outlandish that it makes your skin crawl. Two key characters are worthy of note. The first is Big Brother, the semi-divine party leader who's clouded by an intense personality cult, although he may not even exist. He's the epitome of state tyranny and the party's total control of power.

The other notable character – the novel's protagonist – is wordsmith Winston Smith of the Outer Party who's a distortionist in the eerily named Ministry of Truth. Mr Smith must have taken lessons from Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels. The only difference is that unlike Mr Goebbels, Mr Smith actually secretly loathes the Outer Party and would love nothing better than to dethrone Big Brother. But that's not the point. The key is that Mr Smith is an accomplished revisionist who faithfully serves the party and Big Brother.

Oceania, 1984's superstate, is a den of intriguers and vipers. In it, there's no real truth except that which the state decrees. I think Kenya, like Oceania, is becoming an Orwellian state.

As in Orwell's 1984, mysterious and mind boggling crimes are never really solved – not really. A person disappears, like the late Meshack Yebei, the purported witness at the International Criminal Court. But then the police and state pathologists give Kenyans a doozy. They say — incredibly — that the corpse found floating on the Yala isn't that of Mr Yebei.

They say — after fingerprint and DNA testing — that the dead man is actually one Yusuf Hassan. Then they serve up this head-scratching nugget – that fingerprint and DNA evidence can't fully establish the identity of a person. That's a first for me. I've always known that DNA and fingerprints are "conclusive proof" of human identity. Kenyan investigators and pathologists apparently know better.

There have been very odd disappearances and deaths of people connected to the ICC cases. What's strange is that no one has ever been charged, or held accountable for these grisly and surreal events. The police sometimes promise that "investigations are on-going".

But nothing ever comes to light. Very soon, the story falls off the headlines and the public moves on. I recall the disappearance of State House legal advisor Albert Muriuki. Mr Muriuki deputised presidential advisor Abdulkadir Mohamed, the former Mandera Central MP. Mr Muriuki disappeared without a trace. He went poof in the dead of night. If a presidential advisor can vanish like that — in the blink of an eye — and never be found, who can be safe?

The central purpose of the republican state is to protect life, liberty, and the property of those who live under its roof. It's not tenable — or defensible — that after the 2010 Constitution, hailed as one of the most progressive in the world, that Kenyans live in a republic of fear.

The column by Senator Anyang' Nyong'o in this paper last Sunday — "We should be terrified about deaths and disappearances of Kenyans" — must be a wake-up call. One of the most senior and prominent Kenyans — among the cream of our political elite and intelligentsia — states that he's "frightened" and "actually extremely worried" by the deaths and disappearances of Kenyans. That ought to make all of us sit up straight.

That's why I am calling on the Legislature — both the National Assembly and the Senate — to form a joint a committee of Parliament to investigate these unexplained deaths and disappearances. This ought not be a partisan issue. That's because everyone is at risk of becoming a statistic.

In the alternative, the government should itself appoint a bipartisan commission of inquiry — of the most reputable people — to look into these killings and disappearances. We shouldn't allow Kenya to become Africa's killing field.

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