We must learn to abide by the law or fail to reach ‘Canaan’

More than three thousand years ago, God freed the Israelites from bondage in Egypt, where they were being treated like the Runda house girl recently in the news.

He had promised their ancestors that He would give them a land flowing with milk and honey, upon which they were to dwell in freedom and happiness.

And He came through for them, visited seven plagues on Egypt and the Egyptians gave in and allowed the Israelites to go, opened the Red Sea for them and guided them towards the land He had in mind for them.

Then they came to Kadesh Barnea on the border with Canaan.

Here, the Israelites started getting water in the stomach, as we say in the street.

SPIES

They sent out 12 spies to have a look at the land and advise on the best way to proceed in terms of putting the beacons.

Eleven of the spies came back and reported that things were ‘elephant’: The folks who occupied the land were giants, the Israelites were grasshoppers compared to them and there was no way, absolutely no way, they could defeat them and take the land.

The Israelites were besides themselves with self-pity and anguish.

“The Lord should have allowed us to die in Egypt, which was familiar and we had lived there for centuries, rather than to perish in this forsaken wilderness,” they wailed, forgetting the promise the Lord had made to them as well as the previous miracles He had worked to free them.

DEMOCRACY
In anger, the Lord caused them to wander in the wilderness for 40 years, until that ungrateful generation had died off, before allowing them to enter the Promised Land.      

Kenya has arrived at its Kadesh Barnea. The question is whether it will rise to the occasion and proceed to a land of calm, reason and prosperity or go back to the wilderness of riots, death, contestation and hopelessness.

Democracy happens in the middle, the zone of compromise and reasoned argument.

If you wander too much to the left, you will get lost in the wilderness of anarchy and chaos; too far to the right and you find dictatorship and fascism.

In my opinion, the issue of Miguna Miguna has been canvassed from these extreme poles and the result has been an international incident, embarrassment, odium and the violation of the rights of a Kenyan whose health could be at risk in a foreign land.

COURT ORDERS
Government officers have disobeyed at least nine court orders on five occasions, according to Ms Kagwiria Mbogori, the chairperson of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights.

This is an astounding level of regime lawlessness and impunity.

The government is a child of the law; it gets its right to govern from the law.

If it does not obey the law, on what basis would it expect others to do so?

A government that disregards the law — and its obligation to obey the courts whether the judge is someone’s aunt, uncle, cousin or nephew — loses its moral authority to rule.

For his part, Miguna, through intransigence and a large appetite for drama, has walked into the fascist mouth of the lion.

MIGUNA

He should only have caused a moderate amount of drama — there can be no Miguna Miguna without drama — then struck a compromise while still ahead of the game.

For example, he should have accepted the assistance of officials of the Canadian High Commission to ensure that his rights and passports were safeguarded and that he gained entry into the country to fight for the orders of the court to be obeyed and his passport restored.

What is better; a half a victory or a self-inflicted rout?

This Kadesh Barnea... should we proceed with courage to the Promised Land or head back into the wilderness?

* * *
If you have been to the zoo, you will be forgiven, your bad manners notwithstanding, if you made fun of the baboon.

You can throw sticks at it from the safety of the outside. You can make funny faces at the beast, annoy it, tease it.

So long as you stay outside the cage, the baboon is in your world and the game is played in accordance with your rules.

MEDIA
However, should you — out of an abundance of courage or stupidity — step inside the cage and lock the door, then the rules are dramatically altered; you are no longer in your world but the baboon’s.

You will be expected to conduct yourself by rules you don’t know, speak a language which you only hear but not understand, use fangs you do not possess and fit yourself in a pecking order you did not know exists.

In the moments before the baboon’s fangs sink into your throat, you will, hopefully, understand that what looked like monkey foolishness made perfect sense in the baboon’s world.

If a Kenyan is of the opinion that the media are not doing enough to be free and independent, that is perfectly in order.

Many journalists would love to take lessons and learn from such a Kenyan. So, go ahead, open the door.

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