Tragedy of a government at war with its own people
Kenya is now at war on two fronts. The first front is in southern Somalia where Kenyan troops and military tanks were deployed over a month ago to hunt down Al-Shabaab terrorists.
Operation Linda Nchi is generally seen as the legitimate war, considering the credible threats to Kenya’s economy and peace posed by the Islamist militants.
It also enjoys overwhelming public support at this stage despite its casualty figures rising.
But the other war that began unravelling in Nairobi’s Syokimau, Kyang’ombe, Mitumba and Eastleigh areas this past week is rather strange.
It has the makings of a government at war with its own people, with bulldozers sent in to pull down settlements populated with the middle-class and deprived slum families in broad daylight.
On Facebook, my witty journalist friend Sandra Mulluka aptly christened it Operation Bomoa Nchi.
Save for the relative submissiveness of the victims, these have been scenes straight from Jerusalem, Gaza or West Bank, where Israeli security agents occasionally raid Palestine settlements with debilitating effect.
The report of the joint parliamentary committee chaired by Gachoka MP Mutava Musyimi investigating the demolitions is likely to put the toll as one dead: a child hit by falling debris and later buried at the Lang’ata Cemetery on Saturday, November 19, 2011.
This of course will be a gross understatement. For all those Kenyans who invested their life savings in homes only to see their dreams shattered by the bulldozer have a part of them dead.
And their pain is made worse by the heartlessness displayed by government officials on this matter so far.
In a tragicomedy of sorts, the Kenya Airports Authority officials say they acted on a verbal order by the Transport minister’s personal assistant!
The Lands minister admits the land buyers were conned by fraudsters, including people in his ministry, but doesn’t take responsibility!
And the Commissioner of Lands hasn’t seen a legal notice relating to his office in the past three months but somehow knows that the titles are fake!
But it was encouraging that at a time when every other public official appeared to lose his head, High Court judge Mohammed Warsame kept his.
In his own words: “This government monster in the name of security ought to be investigated and tamed, otherwise it might run amok and cause more suffering to citizens of this country.”
