Stop militarising civilian life; we have competent wananchi for jobs

Governor Mike Sonko should be gone for good. But the last thing I want is the military in my bedroom.

However, Jubilee’s Uhuru Kenyatta forced a lame-duck governor to give him the keys to Nairobi. Then he “replaced” Governor Sonko with Maj Gen Mohammed Abdalla Badi, the Director-General of the newly minted Nairobi Metropolitan Services.

Maj Gen Badi is now the “Governor” of Nairobi. Make no mistake – Sonko, who’s facing corruption charges, has been put out to pasture.

Call him “ex-Governor” Sonko. All his geese are cooked. I ain’t shedding tears. However, the militarisation of the capital city is wrong-headed.

Nairobi is a civilian city, not a military barracks. Mr Kenyatta has a penchant for militarising Kenya’s civilian institutions.

Mr Badi has lofty titles. He’s a general, though not a full one. I am told he was a senior officer in charge of training Kenya Air Force cadres at the National Defence College.

Before then, he was base commander at Moi Air Force Base. I am not sneezing at these accolades. But how does knowing how to shoot a gun and barking orders at subservient military cadres prepare one to run a civilian city?

This question becomes more ominous when understood within the framework of the 2010 Constitution.

Ergo, Nairobi is a devolved unit that should be democratically governed by a civilian. Soldiers need to stay in the military barracks unless the nation hangs on an existential cliff.

ENEMY OF DEMOCRACY

A commenter wrote on social media I shouldn’t question the credentials of Gen Badi to run Nairobi.

He pointed to what he termed “stellar” Israeli generals who went on to become “great” prime ministers. That’s beside the point.

I don’t begrudge any electorate that elects a former military officer to the helm of a democratic state. Former military officers don’t lose their democratic rights to stand for office once they resign their commission.

Winston Churchill, regarded by the British as one of their great prime ministers, was a military man. After all, part of the remit of a prime minister, or president, is to be commander-in-chief of the armed forces. But that’s not true of a Kenyan governor.

In democracies, the military establishment is fully subordinate to elected civilian leadership. Democracies severely limit the role of the military in the internal affairs of the state.

Securing national law and order is the province of the police, not the military, whose mandate is to protect the nation from external threats.

It dilutes democracy for elected civilian leaders to sneak military officers into the institutions and units of civilian government.

This “takeover” of the civilian state by military officers is a coup against democracy. It’s unacceptable for a county – a devolved democratic unit – to be hived off and given to the military.

Handing Nairobi to Gen Badi and his military entourage is anti-democratic and subverts the will of voters.

HANDLING SUSPECTS

That’s why the appointment of Gen Badi to run Nairobi would’ve been unacceptable, even if he had requisite experience and skills, which he doesn’t.

Apparently, Mr Kenyatta wanted a no-nonsense hatchet man who could “crush” Nairobi’s corruption cartels.

I am with him there, but the military isn’t the appropriate instrument for “crushing” corruption networks in a democracy.

The military has zero – nada – skills for the anti-corruption “war”. The military uses mallets to crush foreign enemies.

That’s not what we do to citizens and public officers in a democracy, where the rule of law is supreme. We investigate and prosecute them.

We don’t shoot them in broad daylight on Koinange Street. Where are the offices of DPP, DCI, and EACC?

The string of military officers that Mr Kenyatta has elevated to civilian public life is legion.

Before Gen Badi there was Maj Gen Gordon Kihalangwa at Immigration Services. Others have come from NIS, such as EACC chief executive Twalib Mbarak, as well as former IG Joseph Boinett. The current IG Hillary Mutyambai is from the NIS too.

The list is too long and boring to keep regurgitating here. My point is that Mr Kenyatta seems to believe that civilian leaders are “useless” for key offices in a democracy.

QUALIFIED MAN

The net effect of these appointments is to effectively put Kenya under military rule through the backdoor. It’s an abdication of leadership to the military by an elected civilian government.

Don’t get me wrong. I have great respect and admiration for the men and women in uniform. They guard democracy and the freedoms we all enjoy by putting their lives on the line.

They are the most patriotic of patriots. They are courageous men and women who know what sacrifice means. But they should, and must, stay in their lane.

Ruling over elected devolved units like Nairobi isn’t their forte, or mandate. Surely, Mr Kenyatta could’ve found a highly competent civilian to restore sanity to Nairobi and behead the corruption cartels.

He should’ve given that job to former ethics czar John Githongo, and watch heads of corrupt mandarins roll. Stop militarising civilian life.

Makau Mutua is SUNY Distinguished Professor at SUNY Buffalo Law School and Chair of KHRC. @makaumutua.