Psst! Gov't is listening into your call

The jigsaw puzzle was solved this week when it turned out that the Government wants to give the intelligence services unfettered access to our phone and e-mail conversations without seeking a court warrant.

There are many reasons why it should unsettle us that the National Intelligence Service is seeking these unfettered power to listen in to our calls and also use of its invasive technology to pursue private conversations in the name of heightened security measures to keep terrorism and merchants of ethnic hatred, in check.

Throughout the World, history has shown that the most scandalous and dehumanising invasion of privacy and violation of a people's rights has been in war situations.

That is exactly what George Bush Jnr exploited to seek re-election for his second term. He raised America's sense of fear and siege mentality through the elevation of Osama Bin Laden far beyond the scale of that non-existent, one-eyed monster called ogre your grandmother warned you in those fireside stories, was outside waiting to walk in and swallow you if you did not sleep.

Yes, Osama was the kingpin of international terror, but the Bush administration exaggerated his supposed power to destroy America and to paint a picture of his omnipresence. In the same breathe, Bush and his Republican administration (with its conservative Christian-leaning line) painted a vampire image of Saddam Hussein with the lie that he had weapons of mass destruction.

"We know where they are [Iraq's weapons of mass destruction]. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat,'' declared Bush' biggest clown in Cabinet then, Donald Rumsfeld, before American forces rolled into Iraq. Before they left, two things had happened.

They found no weapons and it handed over the captured former Iraqi leader to the Iraqi civilian government propped by Washington that eventually hanged Saddam.  Probably as Bush smiled with joy while watching on TV somewhere in Texas.

Later Rumsfeld would  (with the tail curled) respond when asked about the absence of evidence of chemical weapons for which over 4,000 American soldiers had been killed in pursuit: "Reports that say there's - that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things that we know that we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know.

But there are also unknown unknowns, the ones we don't know we don't know!"

Yes, Bush thrived on the politics of global terrorism, he used the fear to rally Americans with the cowboy whip of patriotism and Star-Spangled Banner, to introduce all sets of measures, some so excessively outrageous like what President Uhuru Kenyatta's government is seeking for NIS.

Yes, like in the case of America, we have heightened insecurity in Kenya and as well as a Government under siege, over claims of inexperience and tribal constellation. We therefore need to do everything possible to remain afloat even as we fight Al-Shabaab in Somalia. No one wants Al-Shabaab to succeed in cowering all of us to remain home for fear of dying in its hail of bullets or grenade shrapnels.

Terror is strangling our tourism sector, worsening a situation spurred by the consequence of choices we made when we winked and ogled at China as our suitor of preference even though there isn't a single pair of shoes they have bought us before ensuring the return from investment will come tenfold.

That is what the glittering roads are, but I don't blame you, I also love the look and feel of the roads (and may our children grapple with the issues of cost, one-sided contracts, and refurbishing contracts, as well as bank interests).

My worry as a citizen comes when I look at what NIS is about to get from the prism of America's Republican party and that an overly insecure Government that would barricade itself with tanks and gun-carriers, and throw the army into the streets just because Mr Raila Odinga has a rally at Uhuru Park and someone fears he may just order his supporters to storm State House with bare hands.

Yes, this is unsettling because in the name of fighting the fires of insecurity with the leaf of any tree whose twig we can pluck, the Government appears to have found justification for creating a police State to serve its own selfish reasons.

First, it was the persistent attack and effort to bring the media to its knees through Nazi-like laws. Like starving the media of advertising revenue even when media houses pay taxes ten times over.

There was the onslaught on Non-Governmental Organisations, followed by the decision to take away from Parliament, the control measure of first approving the use of military in local crime situations.

I am also beginning to get suspicious of this Nyumba Kumi (Ten-Housing Units) security initiative; there is seemingly a force seeking to contain or control Kenyans through collation of information the way Gestapo operatives did in Nazi Germany.

Why?

Because I keep asking myself why NIS would want to cut off Parliament when it wants to eavesdrop on the conversations of its people.

The question is what checks do Kenyans have against the abuse of this process by political actors, especially when history has taught us that security agents are the biggest players behind the scenes during elections!