The best law is the one you can trust your enemy with when he takes over
What you need to know:
- The attacks have not simply been designed to reintroduce executive control over the security sector, but also to remove elements of civilian oversight.
- There are Kenyans, mostly Jubilee enthusiasts, who are excessively sensitive whenever the President is mentioned and never can see the difference between “President” and “presidency”.
For too long, there has been a process of securitising politics and politicising security in Kenya. As a country, we never really make “pure” security decisions; rather, any such decisions are consistently weighed against political interests.
The result has been a mismatch between the security concerns of Kenyans, as articulated every day within our communities and the agenda of state security provision, which repeatedly reflects elite interests.
The mismatch explains why people in our communities continue to suffer alarming cases of insecurity while the State, starting with the President and his Deputy, and state agencies continue to put up a show of security provision. And one must be excused for believing that it is a deliberate show the equivalent of, if not worse than, a performance on a theatre stage.
Just look at the legislative agenda, which is confused and confusing. I have reason to believe that the confusion is deliberate. We passed a Constitution recently that framed the security question in concise and clear terms. Institutions were created to ensure the transition from a colonial and authoritarian security thinking to a civil, civilian and transparent dispensation.
Since then, the supporting legislation has been the target of legislative attacks and the National Assembly has facilitated those attacks.
The attacks have been single-minded in their focus, revealing how the State and its ruling elite have not moved on as changes in society demand. The attacks have not simply been designed to reintroduce executive control over the security sector, but also to remove elements of civilian oversight.
This reflects the historic suspicion and utter contempt elites have of the “rabble”, as Walter Lippman characterised the public who, he argued, have no sense of what is in their best interest.
The result has been a raft of laws seeking to re-introduce draconian provisions that allow the spy agencies to spy as and when they wish, to recentralise control over policing decisions in the presidency and secure them as political, not security, decisions.
TOO LATE TO CHANGE THINGS
There are Kenyans, mostly Jubilee enthusiasts, who are excessively sensitive whenever the President is mentioned and never can see the difference between “President” and “presidency”.
They have been out claiming that the new Constitution has tied the President’s hand on security matters. They want a return to the old authoritarian order in which the President was single-handedly in charge of security apparatuses and pose this as a solution to the gangs scouring our landscape.
Consequently, the discussion has shifted from the police to inviting the military into internal security matters. The Statute Law Miscellaneous (Amendment) Bill 2014 seeks to amend the Kenya Defence Forces Act and National Intelligence Services Act to militarise internal security.
The question must be asked: Why is this legislative agenda being allowed to commence and what is the role of Parliament in protecting the Constitution? As a country, we have a thoroughly suicidal mentality. We do not look to the long-term implications of what we do and make laws for our person citing his infallibility.
A history lesson: When under Jomo Kenyatta, laws were passed to concentrate powers in the presidency, the assumption was that “our man” was in power. It was only after Mzee Kenyatta died that the reality came home; that the powers had not been concentrated in his person but in the institution — the presidency.
By that time it was too late to change things and the new leadership, as someone concluded, immediately embarked on looting the original looters.
If there must be any lessons out of this discussion, the National Assembly must wake up to the reality that the best law is one you can trust your enemy with when he/she assumes power.
It is one with sufficient checks and balances as to enable democratic governance. Parting shot: I feel young enough I might just be around to say I told you so.
Godwin Murunga is Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Development Studies, University of Nairobi
