From insecurity to sports: Kenya's low moments in 2014

The big story of the villains of the year is intertwined with the complacency of security services, the indiscipline in political circles and the shame of our sports administration.

The public dismissal of top security chiefs following rising insecurity and terror attacks was a first in a decade, but it took too many lives – even a vehicle attached to the presidential escort was carjacked— and immoral levels of buck-passing for the top bosses to be shown the door.

Former National Intelligence Service (NIS) boss Michael Gichangi, ex-Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph ole Lenku and retired Inspector General of Police David Kimaiyo, who has been appointed chair of Kenya Airports Authority, had to leave the service for gaps in policing that gave the Somalia-based Al-Shabaab room to kill and maim Kenyans at will.

The fact that they failed to prevent the killings in Mpeketoni, Mandera and Kapedo, plus other attacks in Kwale and Garissa pushed the country’s patience to the edge.

Major General Philip Kameru is now NIS director, while Major General (rtd) Joseph Nkaissery replaced Lenku at the helm of the Interior ministry. Kimaiyo is yet to be replaced but President Uhuru Kenyatta has nominated NIS Principal Intelligence Officer Joseph Kipchirchir Boinet to take over from Kimaiyo.

The Chief of Defence Forces Julius Karangi survived, because, as one MP put it, he is the one supposed to take the blame because Al-Shabaab are “external aggressors” and it is the job of the military to deal with that.

But as the bosses fell by the wayside, the dream for hi-tech surveillance equipment and more police officers to help in keeping the country, also had to jump through legal and oversight hoops in courts and in the August House.

 PUNITIVE LAWS

The courts cancelled the whole recruitment of 10,000 police officers, as MPs temporarily stopped the closed-circuit surveillance cameras project, but the project is being implemented.

Then the Government came up with punitive laws to deal with insecurity, and these were pushed through the House and enacted amid acrimony. The laws are the subject of litigation in court.

And there is the trend of gunmen killing Muslim clerics. Sheikh Abubakar Sharrif alias Makaburi, the fiery cleric who preached pro-jihad teachings and overtly agreed with Al-Shabaab’s doctrines, was gunned down in Mombasa. His killers were never found.

There were claims that the killings were done by the police. Sheikh Mohammed Idriss, the respected chairman of the Council of Imams and Preachers in Kenya was also shot by unknown gunmen. His killing was blamed on Al-Shabaab.

And just before the dust could settle, Al Jazeera aired an expose, which claimed security officials were executing terror suspects and muslim clerics.

Following the expose, Information, Communication and Technology Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i met Al Jazeera’s top managers yesterday in Doha, Qatar, to register the country’s complaint.

“I met the CEO and two directors to formally complain about the documentary and also made some demands. They have promised to review the programme and take appropriate measures in accordance with our demands,” Dr Matiang’i said.

The ejection of a top official of Kenya’s biggest political party (in terms of elected MPs) was a new low for political tolerance within parties.

In political circles, the genie of political intolerance invaded Orange House and saw the elected city leaders frogmarch – actually manhandle—Orange Democratic Movement Executive Director Magerer Langat, out of office in the full view of party leader Raila Odinga. They then vandalised his vehicle. It was the second time the party had seen high-profile chaos especially after it failed to hold elections, and instead settled on appointing office bearers.

But that violent episode in the party circles is nothing compared to the shameful chaos that rocked the National Assembly on December 18 when MPs ignored the Speaker and booed him into silence, showered his deputy with bottled water, engaged in a brawl with senators following the proceedings from the gallery, to the extent that they disrupted House proceedings and eventually the Security Laws (Amendment) Bill was passed by force – with the Speaker being protected by a human shield of the sergeants-at-arm.

The boardroom wrangles for Kenya’s rugby team was disheartening. Rugby, the game said to be watched by hooligans but played by gentlemen, also had its lows. Kenya Sevens team Head Coach Paul Treu was pushed out as a result of squabbles in the Kenya Rugby Union (KRU). This was followed by the resignation of KRU boss Mwangi Muthee and other directors.

The revelations of doping for one of Kenya’s marathon queens was a nightmare for the athletics community and Kenya at large.

Elite athlete Rita Jeptoo was caught in some doping mishap. The Boston and Chicago Marathon queen tested positive for erythropoietin, some kind of endurance drug.

These are some of the things that dimmed national psyche in 2014.