These official soap operas do not augur well for the country

One presumes that in a state built on democracy and the rule of law, the government would itself be the model citizen, leading by example so that it can demand that all within its dominion similarly observe and protect the laws.

A rogue government, however, will not hold itself up to this exacting standard. It will lead by fraud, deception, and lies.

It is, therefore, not surprising that a regime with no respect for the law and the Constitution will also have no respect for the truth. It will concoct all manner of foolish lies to project its critics in bad light and thereby provide the justification for repression, brutality, denial of basic human rights, and even the odd assassination.

The problem here is that the lies are so amateurish that one wonders whether the apparatchik being trotted out in front of the cameras should not first have been taken for drama courses. We saw just on Sunday Nairobi County Police Commander Japeth Koome come up with the spurious claim that some people had planned to deliver grenades for use in the Monday protests.

If that is not a blatant and shameless lie to justify use of lethal force, it is an indication that the Kenya Police Service and the security networks are thoroughly incompetent. They have details on a very serious criminal plot, complete with the identity of the persons to ferry lethal explosives, but have not bothered to make any arrests.

Now, this is not a one-off piece of individual concoction from the Nairobi police boss. It is a part of a pattern, as seen previously when the principal secretary for Interior, Dr Karanja Kibicho, and the Inspector-General of Police, Mr Joseph Boinnet, directed a soap opera in which police officers supposedly injured while quelling opposition protests in Kisumu were flown to Nairobi for specialised treatment.

BARELY WALK

The drama was supposed to justify the killing of demonstrators, but the scriptwriters forgot that the same officers had been seen hale and hearty while boarding the flight, only to disembark acting, badly, as if they could barely walk.

Then last week, government spokesmen Eric Kiraithe claimed that the organisers of the Cord protests against the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission were plotting, with unnamed neighbouring countries, to overthrow the government.

Mr Kiraithe was accusing Cord leaders Raila Odinga, Kalonzo Musyoka, and Moses Wetang’ula (See www.africanindy.com/news/behind-president-kenyattas-smile-and-charm-5220173) of treason, the most serious offence in the Penal Code. There is only one penalty for treason: death by hanging.

One would expect that anyone accused of treason, terrorism, and other such crimes would be firmly behind bars in a maximum-security facility while awaiting trial.

But the three suspects not only continued enjoying their liberty, just a day after the accusations, two of them — Mr Odinga and Mr Wetang’ula — were hobnobbing with President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto at State House.

DANGEROUS CHARACTERS

Now, unless the system is falling apart, Mr Kiraithe would not have made such accusations against the opposition chiefs without the knowledge of the highest offices in the land.

When President Kenyatta invited the Cord leaders to a State House luncheon for visiting South Korean President Park Geun-hye, he would have known of the National Intelligence Service’s determination that the opposition chiefs were extremely dangerous characters who sought the unconstitutional and violent overthrow of his government.

Such fellows obviously should not be allowed anywhere near State House and, of course, especially where they might pose danger to a visiting president.

The President also surely is aware that close to treason on the list of serious offences is another one called misprision of treason. So the moment Mr Odinga and Mr Wetang’ula entered the gates of State House, President Kenyatta, Mr Ruto, and Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery should not have dined and wined with them and posed for photo ops, but pointed them out to the police officers in attendance for immediate arrest.

That the President and the others ignored the purported intelligence information and welcomed their guests suggests that they knew it was all a big lie, maybe of their own making.

The problem with governance by lies and disinformation is that ultimately the leaders feel constrained to make true their own prophecies. Remember president Moi warning that multi-party democracy would lead to ethnic strife?

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