NAIROBI: For residents of northern Kenya, the Security Law (Amendment) Bill is an affront to national cohesion and integration. It balkanises the nation and will further marginalise pastoralists.
It makes communities that have suffered massacres perpetrated by State agencies more vulnerable as security officers get discretionary powers to make them victims without care for proof. It reduces the former Northern Frontier District (NFD) to a mere appendage of the nation.
This Bill is obnoxious and we are better off without it. But a big question though, are laws really the problem to our insecurity? Basically, laws are necessitated by need and made to guarantee order for public good. They are informed by principles, values and norms of a conscientious mind.
We, therefore, need a conscientious vote in Parliament without the dictates of parties on this Bill, irrespective of Jubilee's tyranny or CORD's tragedy of numbers.
We need a conscientious Executive, firm on good governance, addressing ineptitude in the public service without coercing individuals to resign or playing tribal politics. The presidency should be conscientious to leave an invaluable legacy of performance but not politics of just securing maximum political term.
Our Police Service must be a conscientious lot first before enforcing the law. What ails our police are poor morals and work culture. This dates back to the colonialists, whose objective was to unleash brute force to serve the masters, not the public.
It was entirely for impunity, setting bad values and work culture. This was further enhanced by dictatorial post-independence governments that used the unit to silence dissent and freedom.
With multiparty democracy, we expected progressive change from the same force, whose conscience was long distorted merely on the hope of amendments, repealing and making of new laws. In the Somali community, there is a saying that a stolen cow will not beget a legitimate calf.
The force's inertia and refusal to transform is systemic. What is required is a brand-new unit reformed radically through training and restructuring to fit in with the times.
This can be a slow and expensive process but must start in earnest if our progressive 2010 Constitution is to bear dividends.
Security of tenure of the Inspector General isn't an impediment but a requisite to prevent manipulation and politicising of the Police Service. Tenure of insecurity of an IG is equally sufficient ground for ineptitude and removal.
Why all the fuss then in amending what is straight-forward and clearly spelt in the legal instruments? Laws are not divine and should constantly be reviewed for better.
Amendments are allowable only to the extent of such pursuit but not to negate basic principles, values, freedoms on which the conscience of our nationhood rests.
For instance, abolishing the NPSC, which is an overlap of the Police Service and some busybodies for human resource tasks that could be performed by the Public Service Commission would cut bureaucracy and lessen the burden on the taxpayers.
The NPSC has made operations cumbersome. Their last promotions of force members, following the last vetting exercise, are wanting and do not reflect regional balance and fairness.
Replacing the IG at the behest of tribal and political machinations will take us back to the same place of blame games and excuses. We need an IG with a firm conscience like Major General Hussein Ali, who can boldly say that if given a chance, he would do the same thing to respond to the PEV of 2007/8 were it to recur, God forbid.
Kenya needs well-thought-out and workable strategies to stem insecurity. Boardroom meetings at Harambee office will not secure us. There is need to secure our borders.
Change of perception, through friendly approaches will work miracles. This avenue is better than use of force, curfews and intimidation.
