We kill petty thieves but set looters free

Nine months ago Willy Kimani, Josephat Mwendwa and Joseph Muiruri were abducted and brutally murdered by police employed to protect them.

Solidarity protests were held all over the country and the Law Society of Kenya dared to proclaim ‘never again’.

But experienced observers knew that this would not mark the end of extrajudicial killings in Kenya.

One had only to look at the reports of Independent Medico Legal Unit (IMLU) or read the daily newspapers to discover that Kenyans continue to be slaughtered by the men and women in blue who cynically retain a motto of ‘utumisihi kwa wote’ (service for all).

No such service or right to a fair trial was granted to two young men mowed down in front of hundreds of spectators in Eastleigh last week.

Not a murmur of shame or regret from Nairobi Police Commander, Japheth Koome.

GRAND CORRUPTION

Instead he expressed utter delight and praised his men while the public clapped profusely wanting to believe that cops were winning the war on crime.

Believe what you will, but every summary execution is another confirmation that our criminal justice system has failed.

Prisons are bursting at the seams with petty offenders condemned to incarceration because they could not bribe or pay petty fines.

Poverty is criminalised and so touts, street families, sex workers and hawkers occupy overcrowded cells where they learn tricks to rob society that has dealt them a bad hand.

They enter prison as amateurs but graduate as professional crooks ready to take revenge on an unfair society.

But if poverty is criminalised, grand corruption is revered.

The grand looters of the nation’s wealth will sail through party primaries this month and proceed to dish out packets of unga and cheap t-shirts so that we allow them to live lavishly at our expense for the next five years.

SCAPEGOAT
We have experienced so many corruption scandals that indifference and corruption fatigue have set in.

The fatigue, of course, conceals a seething anger waiting to be let loose on the plunderers of the nation’s wealth.

But the public cannot get their hands on them. They are well protected by bodyguards, outriders, high walls, bullet proof vehicles, fierce dogs and helicopters.

Yet the repressed anger does find expression when the public encounters a thief who steals a side mirror or telephone.

The petty thief becomes the scapegoat for all the contempt and rage we feel inside for the mega thieves.

So we kick the petty thief to death because we can’t raise a hand against the big man.

This alone may explain how mob 'justice' and extrajudicial killings have become acceptable behaviour in our streets today.

Yet those who have looted the nation’s coffers through Anglo Leasing, Eurobond, NYS, Chickengate and a thousand other fraudulent deals should take warning.

REVOLUTION

They may be comfortable and insulated for now.

But a time is coming when the public’s adulation will turn to hatred and revenge and they may become the victims of ridicule, violence and even killings.

Silence and tolerance of the status quo should not be considered signs of weakness.

Rather they are seeds of discontent that will give birth to revenge if things don’t change quickly.

[email protected] @GabrielDolan1