Terrorists don’t deserve protection of the Constitution

What you need to know:

  • The Constitution we promulgated in August 2010 defines the inviolability of Kenya’s borders, the rule of law and the Bill of Rights.
  • When individuals or groups elect to upend established systems like the Constitution, they opt out of it. The only choice the collective majority of Kenyans has is to exterminate these individuals or groups.
  • They have chosen the sword, and we can’t give them flowers. The law imposes on our government the ultimate and sole responsibility to protect us from terrorists.

We are undergoing an historical era in which we are being held to ransom by such groups as MRC, Al-Shabaab and Mungiki.

But these groups, in taking up arms and choosing violent means to agitate their positions, have elected to operate outside established legal systems and cannot be protected by them.

The emergence of nation-states was to usher in a period in which security and dispute resolution of individuals were subordinated to a bigger unit.

History is hazy on when this began on a large scale, but many attribute it to the Treaty of Westphalia (1618-1648). By this treaty, nation-states had to have defined boundaries, be sovereign and equal.

Those within the boundaries of nation-states agreed, by choice or otherwise, to abide by its collective rules.

The Constitution we promulgated in August 2010 defines the inviolability of Kenya’s borders, the rule of law and the Bill of Rights.

The Bill of Rights as set out in Chapter 4 may be couched in absolute terms, but rights can never be absolute in isolation. Rights impose on citizens or anyone who claims them obligations. One can only enjoy the blessings of the altar as long as he doesn’t desecrate it.

When individuals or groups elect to upend established systems like the Constitution, they opt out of it. The only choice the collective majority of Kenyans has is to exterminate these individuals or groups.

They have chosen the sword, and we can’t give them flowers. The law imposes on our government the ultimate and sole responsibility to protect us from terrorists.

This is an obligation that the government cannot outsource, prevaricate or derogate from. It is a duty we demand of them. By surrendering to it our collective rights to protect ourselves, it behoves the government to act decisively.

To engage terrorists in talks is to undermine the very foundation of our sovereignty. In talking to them, we give legitimacy to their seditious intentions. In a nation-state, we choose to live in a state of order or of chaos.

When one chooses to assert their rights by extra-legal means, the state must respond extra-judicially.

MRC, Al-Shabaab and Mungiki don’t have a forwarding address to send court summons. Them and anyone who shares their ideals is a legitimate target of our police force. And such targets don’t have protection of the Constitution.

The writer is an advocate of the High Court of Kenya. [email protected]