The new security law should fight Al-Shabaab, not the citizenry

The recent introduction of the Security Laws (Amendment) Bill  2014 has been met with mixed reactions by the public.

It appears that those who consider themselves regime supporters have fully endorsed this Bill, regardless of its contents.

What is concerning about the Bill is not just its contents, but its ultimate purpose. Coming hot on the heels of the recent terror attacks in Mandera County, the Bill is painted by government as a necessary step in escalating Kenya’s efforts in the war against terror group Al-Shabaab.

It’s note-worthy that this bill seems to have come to light almost immediately after the broadcast of a damning investigative film by Al-Jazeera English, Inside Kenya’s Death Squads.

The film has confessions from unnamed people described as counter-terrorism officers, who claim that they are behind the extrajudicial killings of hundreds of “Muslim radicals” each year and that they would “plant evidence to make their victims look like terror suspects.”

The film also claims that these executions are sanctioned by high officials in government, going all the way to State House.

The government’s initial response was to threaten to prosecute the makers and broadcasters of the film. In turn, Al-Jazeera Media Network released an official statement concerning the threats, urging the government “not to attack journalists or to curtail freedom of speech, but instead to confront the serious allegations that its agents commit extra-judicial killings.”

Despite the serious allegations in the broadcast, the Kenya government is yet to indicate any desire to investigate the allegations.

Instead, Information Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiangi, appearing in a special broadcast on Al-Jazeera’s Inside Story, said it was “unfair, inaccurate and untruthful to try to build the challenges we have in our country as a religious conflict. The intention of the film is to show that there is a religious conflict in the country, that a particular religion is being targeted, which is not true.”

LIMITING DEMONSTRATIONS 

This argument ignores facts behind the war on Al-Shabaab. This is an Islamic terror group and thus all members are Muslims, as would be their recruits and those who agree with their religious ideology. It’s obvious that Muslims in particular would be targeted in a war against Al-Shabaab.

Essentially the issue here isn’t just the religious aspect of the war on terror, but the fact that ‘suspects’ should be arraigned in court, not executed or “eliminated.

Conveniently, Mr Matiangi side-steps the main concern in the documentary, which is that extra-judicial killings were going on in Kenya done by government “death squads”.

Much like the proposed Security Laws (Amendment) Bill 2014, the general response by government to the broadcast by Al-Jazeera is to focus much attention on matters that seem to have less to do with security and more to do with controlling democratic space in Kenya.

The new bill proposes amendments to the Public Order Act, which deals with constitutional rights concerning freedom of assembly and demonstrations. This being one of the first amendments to be found in the 90-page document, one is left to wonder what exactly demonstrations have to do with fighting terrorist groups. Certainly Al-Shabaab is unlikely to hold a protest in Kenya.

ERODE GAINS

According to former Eagle Alliance vice-presidential candidate Ronald Osumba, the bill “intends to affect a total of 21 Acts of Parliament.”

In his statement on the Bill, Mr Osumba lauds the more precise aspects of the Bill which appear to deal with security. However, he is also “shocked, on the other hand, by amendments that will erode a lot of gains we have made as a country, especially those touching on fundamental human rights.”

Even as leaders of the Catholic and Anglican Churches demanded a speedy enactment of the anti-terror bill, they strongly indicated that an overhaul of the security apparatus was most certainly necessary and should be a primary focus.  

Archbishop Eliud Wabukala of the Anglican Church said that, “A police force bogged down by bureaucratic and weak command structures and an intelligence service that has lost touch with the realities on the ground can never be trusted to secure Kenyans.”

DEMOCRCRATIC PRINCIPLES

It is clear that additional legislation is not going to fix the serious problems in the national security services. Moreover, to introduce unconstitutional laws fraught with serious infringements on civil liberties not only misdirects the country’s attention, but also suggests that the government sees the Republic as the foremost  barrier in their fight against terrorists.

The reason that Kenya made its initial incursion into Somalia was supposedly to secure its borders. Our nation exists because of its democratic principles, and it is this very fundamental reason that separates our fighters from the enemy; that we are fighting for our country, our rights and our freedoms. We cannot forget this even as we intensify our efforts in this war.

If we allow government to radically infringe on civil liberties then there is really nothing left worth fighting for. Our nation has come a long way since independence, and the constitutional rights and freedoms we enjoy today came at a frightful cost. It is these rights that separate us from the extremists and that make us who we are as a nation.

It is time that this government understood that the war with Al-Shabaab is really with Al-Shabaab. Not with the Constitution, the citizenry and most certainly not with democracy.