Ongoing brutalisation of young people sure recipe for anarchy

Permit me the latitude to jump the niceties of sharing new year greetings. For moments such as these must fill us all with alarm and concern. Buddha once remarked that there are three things you can’t hide for long; the sun, the moon and the truth. The words “irretrievably arrogant, distasteful and unacceptable” as articulately deployed by National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetang'ula may apply mutatis mutandis to how our friends in government are conducting the affairs of the State.

For avoidance of doubt, Kenya is a constitutional democracy. The primary responsibility of a government, both in theory and in practice, is preservation of the sanctity of life. Thomas Hobbes earned his place in history books by famously pointing out that man deposed the state of nature primarily so as to escape anarchy. It cannot be that in the 21st century we can have state-sponsored anarchy in response to purported crimes, which at best would be described as misdemeanors. In criminal justice system the world over, criminal offences are divided into two broad categories.

Capital offences called felonies and minor offences called misdemeanors. As part of the states privileged position as the protector of right to life and property, all criminal offences are prosecuted in the name of the state. It’s for that reason that the standard of proof, so as to attempt to prevent misuse of criminal justice system, is nothing less than beyond reasonable doubt. What that means is that a judicial officer, having heard a criminal matter to the end, is left with no reasonable doubt that the person brought before him or her is the offender, to warrant conviction.

Actually, to further ensure that criminal prosecutions are not used to serve nefarious political ends, but that due process takes precedence the Blackstone’s Ratio envisaged that it’s better that ten guilty individuals, than one innocent person, to be convicted. The only way to determine one’s guilt is by charging them in court. After the charges are read to the suspect, they should be granted the right to legal representation and accorded them the greatest innovation of criminal justice administration; the presumption of innocence.

In view of the foregoing, we have collectively been treated to a very bad circus by this regime in regards to the new spate of abductions. Nothing underscores the duplicity of this administration most eloquently than how it has contradicted itself on its human rights record. It has made River Yala bodies saga look like child’s play.

Let the whole world condemn the Kenya Kwanza for attempting to make abductions part of our criminal justice procedure. That majority of the abductees turn up dead is the testament that the killing machine, that killed 80 Kenyans - majority of them Luos - during the demontrations over the high cost of living in 2023, then killed almost 70 anti-Finance Bill protesters in 2024 has now decided to instill fear through abductions. But they cannot kill us all. We demand that the abducted Kenyans be arraigned so that they have a chance to defend themselves in an open court. But if, God forbid, they have been transported to heaven as this regime once promised that it has such powers, may their bodies be released to their families.

What will obliterate Kenya Kwanza, is within Kenya kwanza. The frenzied brutalisation has a name. It’s called mindless impunity predicated on outdated thinking. But it’s a sloppy path that I hope the President will not let his flatterers lead him to, leading to the country’s descent. For the people, out of faithfulness to self-interest, might repudiate the state if it is unwilling or unable to protect them. They might organise themselves into village and estate vigilantes armed with both crude and sophisticated weapons. With the current attempts by bloggers of this regime to stroke historical ethnic grievances, in the ensuing melee, historians would retreat to record that William Ruto is the man who tirelessly worked to become president only to lose a country.