WHAT DO NASA RESIST?

I

{Credit to Dreamstime.com}

 pen this piece full of my own personal apprehension about the destiny of Kenya as a republic. Both in overt public declarations and in hushed tones there has been public discourse about secession of sections of Kenya from the whole. No less than the coastal region has had their foremost leaders come out strongly to assert that the coast no longer feels as a part of Kenya. I do not blame them as I’m reminded of what occurred in Biblical times. Joseph who came into Egypt as a slave, bought by Potiphar – captain of the Egyptian army and eventually imprisoned for some falsified accusations by the captain’s wife. By the Supreme Deity’s grace he flourished, giving a prediction that saved Egypt from a great 7-year famine by building great reserves of food in times of opulence. When lean times struck, nations travelled from far and wide to come and try to buy supplies from Egypt. Such was the splendour of the land at the time that even the nation of Israel; God’s own chosen people, via its primordial eleven sons were attracted there to save their lineage. With Joseph - their blood; an insider in the Pharaoh’s palace, the Israelites were given laissez-faire even to settle in the land and engage in agriculture and other forms of enterprise. Several generations later, a new Pharaoh emerged who knew not of Joseph and his acts of saving grace for the Egyptians. All he saw were how great the Israelites had prospered in his land, multiplying greatly and each of their enterprises faring better than his own people’s. The age old ‘green-eye’ set in and he decided to enslave the Israelites. Egyptians proceeded to ride roughshod over Israelites. Years of servitude ensued and ultimately; there arose Moses who was tasked with leading the children of Israel back to their ancestral land. This request felt like a bad joke to the ears of the Pharaoh of the day. He flatly declined; accustomed to comforts afforded by the Canaanites’ free labour. The afflictions of the ten plagues did something to ease the Pharaoh’s resolve but immediately his erstwhile slaves left he felt a tinge of regret. Despite freely allowing them to leave he changed his mind and decided to pursue them headlong. But I digress, because I have never laid claim to being a preacher.

I will try to demystify the gist of Kenya’s National Super Alliance (NASA) grouse with the incumbency. They have become so aggravated that they have now converted to a resistance movement. I do this both for Kenyans of good will and those blinded by ethnic and political affiliations so that if they truly love Kenya, then they will understand the reasons why their compatriots do what they have to do.

Lack of commitment to Electoral reform by the incumbency. The Incumbent government in Kenya does not seem to have any interest in electoral reform which piques many members of the populace. This is despite the fact that they come out in force every electoral season to vote for their candidates of choice. But when the time for result announcement comes around many are no doubt shocked by the results. The majority has lost! Any electoral system even in the more developed countries is often regarded a dynamic system, fully living and a work in progress. However, when this system does not possess any quantifiable evidence of improvement that is cause for alarm. I wrote in a previous post that an electoral system is supposed to be simple, free, fair, efficient, accurate and verifiable. How many boxes of these can the Kenyan system contrive to tick? Add to these woes technology failure, corruption in procurement and the age old problem of manipulation then you find yourself with a ghastly mix. That we have an ICT based electoral system which lacks a senior IT official in the higher echelons of the organization can only speak volumes of how much we regard the value of those professionals.  Add to that the fact that our electoral results have to be transferred to a server hosted in a foreign country with the hosting company blatantly refusing to release those figures even at the inquisition of no less than the Supreme Court is telling. I could harp on and on castigating such utterly reprehensible and predictable flaws but to what end? What is the wisdom of complaining to a frigid and dispassionate entity, fatally flawed? And why should I as a Kenyan expect any less efficiency from a system procured so dearly with my tax payer’s funds? What is most disturbing is that these transgressions are only discernible to one party with the other choosing to turn a blind eye with the incumbent being liable of the latter commission. I will not even be drawn on the Electoral commissioners themselves taking incessant polls to determine issues of basic commonsense and principle of operation. For the October 26 election, why was the poll allowed to go on despite admissions that the basic thresholds for verifiability, freedom and fairness had not been achieved. Despite a major player vacating the election the poll still went on. It ended up carrying all the hallmarks of a sham and meaningless exercise soulless and desolate. The Supreme Court unfortunately upheld the result of this exercise leaving limited avenues for redress.

Police brutality and inordinate use of force by security operatives. In the current election cycle the police look prepared to execute a predetermined script. Despite Chapter 4 Article 37 of the constitution of Kenya which bestows upon all citizens the Right to peaceably and unarmed, assemble, demonstrate, picket and to present petitions to public authorities. Apparently the security operatives seem to be operating from a point of vindictive bile against members of the opposition school of thought. They criminalize the very act of dissent. They violate Article 244 on the conduct of the National Police Service with ruthless abandon. Enjoyment of these freedoms is usually curtailed by such violent suppression as to seem vengeful at best and a form of ethnic cleansing of groups deemed ‘politically-incorrect’ by the Government of the day at worst. Whatever happened to the much vaunted ‘Utumishi Kwa Wote’ mantra and maintenance of law and order? If you attack unarmed citizens of a nation aren’t you the greatest impediment to their adherence to Law and Order? Intimidation of countrymen and behaving like terrorists against the people you are supposed to protect will only foster bad blood between the citizenry and yourself. Those demonstrating are in the same vein fighting for your rights too as security operatives yet you treat them even worse than the lowest of beasts. Unfortunate of all, the deliberate maiming and killing of fellow men in the guise of protecting property and investment is just diabolical, macabre & barbaric behavior. Malicious targeting and execution of small children and claiming stray-bullets is so callous I will not even comment about it here objectively or in passionate emotion. May the souls of all these people find eternal repose! (Sic) Many lives were lost to attain the freedoms we now desecrate and that is unacceptable and a reasonable grounds to resist.

Economic disenfranchisement, entrenchment of mediocrity, run away corruption and tribalism. The current government has made it a routine to engage in the practice of playing the game of hot-potato with responsibility on important challenges and matters of State. With musical chairs the order of the day, nobody is willing to take responsibility on any act of omission or commission but all are keen to be glorified for achievements attributable to others. It is not rare to see government officials taking glory for projects that may even have been launched in colonial times and put them under their portfolio of achievements. That kind of dishonesty is what is causing consternation among so many and pitting them firmly against government. Worst of all is the run-away corruption which no less than the Head of state himself is on record claiming surrender and abject failure in his efforts to tackle it in his very own office. Is that presidential talk? I unabashedly doubt it. So there is a cartel so strong that they send jitters down the Head of State’s spine? I am too perplexed to go on but I have to. And it seems sections of the populace are equally culpable in promoting mediocrity. I have personally spoken to some fellows who I have great affection and respect for as friends and intellectuals of no mean repute only to gain insight I now wish I did not. They claim that in the heartland of the president’s own home county there are people who walk bare-foot to the level of becoming jigger-infested and imbibing in so much liquor as to become a liability to society. Their argument is that regions external to the president’s backyard have no moral authority to complain about disenfranchisement as this is the prevailing situation countrywide. I totally and unapologetically differ on such a sinister premise. This appears as an abject failure of government to implement its agenda and shortchanging the people they vowed to serve and protect and it should be called as such. That as asinine a vice as ethnicity is worn like a badge of honour in many state departments is utterly repugnant. This is nothing to be proud of in our nation that claims heritage to many cultures. It an indictment even to one’s cognitive faculties to think you are better than somebody else based on origins, sex, religion and any kind of affiliations. As a wise man put it, ‘Brilliance is evenly distributed while Opportunity is not’. The fortuitous simplicity of the sagacity of that statement should not be lost on anyone. Our political rallies overflow with the youth who are less than gainfully engaged. Consequently, they are vulnerable to manipulation and for a trifle commit great atrocities only but to vent out their frustrations on the wrong entities –their compatriots from another political party or tribal grouping. The right villain to train their sights on is that villainous entity who robs the government in broad daylight, hacks the IFMIS system then carts 60 million shillings in sacks to a quarry in the dead of the darkest night, but I will be queried on who I am to cast the first stone? 

As an act of civil disobedience. Chapter 1 Article 1, Section 2 of Constitution of Kenya empowers the electorate with the authority to exercise sovereign power either directly or through representatives. Kenyan democracy is built on the blood, sweat and tears of many freedom fighters and reformists which we cannot allow to be washed away by malicious, abhorrent and reprehensible entities just by intimidation, connivance and for ethnic convenience. If the side in power elects to misunderstand or refuse to follow some provisions of the law then what moral authority do they have to ask the populace to obey the same? Talk of entitlement based on their role in fighting for independence is pure hogwash. The previous election had no place for the reward of meritocracy choosing to proffer entitlement by other parameters too nebulous to be conjured by the ordinary mind. Also with a situation where an undeserving party has a majority in all houses of Parliament; our goose may well have been cooked. As we are deemed unworthy for recognition of hard-earned achievement, then we can only do what is constitutionally mandated to us which is exercise our sovereign power directly.

The boycott of certain consumer goods. These firms are not guests to privilege for currying favour to the government of the day. Consequent to this; a feeling of superiority, entitlement and generation of super-profits is their modus-operandi. In token of all this insensitivity, arrogance and indifference has crept in to sections of the entrepreneurial class. They blatantly support inequality, marginalization, blindness to historical injustices and political strife. In consort with our Government they exhort them to treat such as norms handled only with the policy of leaving them to the creator! Some were in good faith used as conduits to transmit election results due to their above average reliability as network service providers to servers abroad and mysteriously leave not even a log to assist in the verification of whatever data was transmitted. Others choose to offer an endorsement of the government chiding the opposition as ineffectual and an insult to the Kenyan psyche. The other is a popular milk processing firm owned by the first-family of the day. We have borne witness to a broadcasting arm that pays lip service to the first-family, that only parrots the views by ideologues and narrow minded apologists and sycophants of the government of the day all the while goading a venerable opposition leader who their only aim is to see retire into oblivion in sinister motive. We have been treated to the ‘theatre of the absurd’ by people vowing to evict opposition members who find habitation in their rental houses but choose to go against the grain of the land-lords tribal chiefs. Others talk of the ‘matatu industry’ predominantly controlled by one group threatening to stop opposition elements from boarding their conveyance. To counter against such abominable and obnoxious palaver members of NASA have taken it upon themselves to boycott these companies as they do not appreciate the value of their consumers to their success and this until at such a time when the same is forthcoming. Sentiments of economic sabotage and threats of job loses are no doubt moot as you cannot lose what you never had in the first place.  

The government treatment of the civil service has been appalling.  Politicians in the government side go around boasting of their good fortune while on the opposite side of the mouth lamenting a lack of funds to pay essential members of the civil service in the Health and Education departments. Professionals are left to engage in industrial action for lengthy periods; hence, woe on to you if you can ill afford private facilities.

Insufficient support to the county government is an item of lamentation. The central government claims to value devolution even appointing a fully fledged cabinet secretary for the purpose who may as well be a tree stump! Counties are so poorly financed as to perpetually live in eternal dependence on the national government. With only 15% allocation of the national budget they are so underfunded as to virtually serve at the discretion of the national government and any impression of deviance from the official Government line may result in funds being frozen.

The government’s foreign policy is wanting. African entrepreneur extraordinaire and billionaire Aliko Dangote was set to open a cement factory in Kenya early last year. Plans were in such full gear that Job advertisements were already being circulated in various online and print media outlets.  His intentions were noble but according to the grapevine were met with head winds when his kick-back valuations to the powers that be fell far below what is required to open shop in Kenya. Is that our national policy on foreign investment? How are we to create the 100,000 jobs per year for our youths? How are we to get any future foreign investment in? Despite years of regional cooperation, when our livestock cross into a neighbouring country and are auctioned and there is not as much as a whimper from our foreign affairs docket. 

Engaging in Intellectual dishonesty about constitutional interpretation really hurts. When seasoned constitutional lawyers and Professors choose to sacrifice many years of erudition and experience at the altar of privilege and ethnic convenience , they expose themselves to ridicule. They are in full spirit a liability to humanity. Instead of providing valuable insight and edify the layman these ‘fellows’ are busy throwing more mud to roil an already turbid interpretation of our ambivalent and obscure laws. They start their statements with “The Law is clear” then proceed to muddle a further complicated concoction. Religious dishonesty to the levels that have been witnessed in the country can only be well viewed from the prism of the paranormal. What use is an imposition on our conscience called ‘Corporate Prayers for Peace and Unity’ when this same characters preach with amnesia to truth and justice? Enough said.

Land reform failure among other issues also gnaws at their conscience. As patriotic Kenyans of good will we cannot stand back and watch all we are proud of go down the drain right before our eyes. Kenya is truly at the cross-roads. These are only a microcosm of the reasons why NASA resist.