Letter to the men of Kenya: Get angry and act

Similarly, and by refusing to hand over the ‘‘Waki List’’ to The Hague, Mr Annan has done the same thing. Like Marende, he is just postponing the eventual pain.
But in the meantime, an alternative is forming. As you celebrate the ‘‘righteous cowards’’ with short-term solutions, the evil men are perfecting their schemes. This takes me back to the contest between the bad and the bad.

On the one hand we have the two principals. Their combination has brought us nothing but disaster. Yet they are the best part of the ‘‘evil’’ in our politics.

Even then, to imagine that one of them will take us to 2012 and the other one to 2022 makes me sick. But there is another concern here. What makes you think that President Kibaki will hand over power to someone he does not like?

Given his record in 2007, he might decide to hand over to a crony! And if he does, where will you take him? This possibility takes me to the other side of our ‘‘bad’’ politics.

If someone from the ‘‘woolly camp’’ does not arise, the struggle will be between the two principals and the underground formations.

And on this account, I need to ask you a question: Is it true that a member of Mungiki makes Sh500 a day? If so, he earns in one week what the average wage earner gets in a month!

Between the criminal and the formal sector, where would such a youth prefer to work? My second question is this: Is it true that Mungiki has about 1.5 million followers and that there is another 27 such militia groups country wide?

What makes you think that they have no political agenda and that in 2012 they will not take over through the ballot? My hunch: we have waited until it is too late to deal with them. Their organisation and numbers can only hand over power to them. And if this were to happen, their leader will behave like Agathocles, the Sicilian.

This was a simple ‘‘Mungiki type’’, son of a potter. He was a criminal whose acts were accomplished with such courage and class that he was invited to join the army. When inside, he developed ambition to become the King of Syracuse.

After conniving with Hamilcar the Carthaginian, he took over as King. Then one morning he assembled the people and the Senate of Syracuse. He pretended to have an important matter to discuss at breakfast.

And at a pre-arranged signal, he had all the Senators and the richest citizens of Syracuse killed by his soldiers. With this, he sorted out all the opposition and established hegemony. My point?

If the criminal gangs take over from the tired principals, they will be draconian. Like Agathocles, they will sort out anyone with influence and power.

And they will do this without discrimination. The question is: Can you spy this possibility? If you do, then you need to get angry and act.

mutahi@myself.com