President right to blame Kenyans for insecurity

Every time eight senior directors of the Presidential Strategic Communications (sic) Unit issue a joint statement, the country has no choice but to believe the Head of State because his is the final word.

For the third time this year, the eight keyboard warriors at the PSCU this week wrote to reinforce the sensible statements the President recently made on security.

The eight have spoken forcefully and in unison before to put Senator James Orengo in his place when he suggested that the President and the Deputy President might know something about the land problems in Lamu; and then again to educate the public on the likelihood of the Kenya cases at the International Criminal Court collapsing when the President attended a status conference in October.

Essentially, the keyboard warriors reinforce the President’s message that Kenyans should stop blaming the police for not preventing the Mandera bus attack in which 28 people were killed.

Were it not for the restraint that comes from working for the government, they might have added that given that there had been a warning about an impending attack, the slackness of those living in the area to learn a few verses from the Koran in preparation, their refusal to take leave of absence from work, or even to fly into Mandera using military helicopters instead of crowding inside a bus remained nagging questions.

GO INTO HIDING

They might even have gone a step further and asked why the Kenyans who were killed in Mpeketoni, Lamu, did not go into hiding like the officers at the police station.

They might also have questioned the motives of the Kenyans who went to shop at Westgate Mall last year when there was already a warning that such a large shopping complex might be a terror target.

Kenyans must take responsibility for the increasing lawlessness in the country which is a direct product of their laxity and blame-shifting.

It should be obvious that the recent defilement of a three-year-old child by her uncles, which the President referred to this week, exposed gross negligence on the part of the parents. Not only were they absent from home, but also abandoned the child in the hands of relations when they could have deposited her at the baby care desk of the local police station. Instead of demanding police action after the fact, such people and their sympathisers should ask themselves what they could have done to prevent this crime.

TRENDING TOPICS

If the police are corrupt, they are bribed by citizens, who are also voters. Since citizens conspire to frustrate the law by, for example, starting trending topics on how to escape the law while driving under the influence of alcohol, Kenyans must not expect the President or his government to put an end to such widespread, cultural criminality.

The opposition has been taunting the President to arrest police officers and citizens alike in order to reduce the government’s popularity.

There are people out there who would like to make the President unpopular by forcing him to order the arrest of innocent citizens who have been stripping women in public and sexually assaulting them in order to lose him political support ahead of the 2017 elections.

Given that the President recently returned from the United Arab Emirates, it would be fitting and proper to ask why Kenyan women leave their homes in the first place to walk in the streets.

In advanced democracies like Saudi Arabia, women do not venture outside their homes unless accompanied by an adult male relation.

Blaming the police for any safety incidents they may encounter will just not wash. Safety is the citizen’s responsibility – it begins and ends with you.

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