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Nation under siege: Leaders taking us toward Armageddon

Thursday March 25 2021
Rashid Echesa.

Rashid Echesa, Kenya's former Sports Cabinet Secretary, appears in a Kiambu court to answer to charges of assaulting an IEBC official in the just concluded Matungu by-election in Kakamega, western Kenya. PHOTO | SIMON CIURI | NMG

By TEE NGUGI

The ink was hardly dry on last week’s column on political immorality being the greatest threat to the Kenyan nation-state before the truth of that assertion was witnessed during recent ward and constituency by-elections.

During the polls, politicians were seen committing egregious election offences without care. Some were arrested near polling stations with millions of shillings inside their cars. Some were seen harassing and humiliating female officials of the Independent Elections and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).

A former cabinet secretary was captured on TV slapping an IEBC official inside a polling station. Other politicians were arrested carrying machetes and clubs in their cars. Some were seen running around with goons, intimidating voters. Guns were drawn and gunshots fired. It’s a miracle no one died. The headline in the Daily Nation of the following day screamed in shame and horror: A Day of Shame!

What did not escape many was that the politicians were committing these crimes, not under the cover of darkness, but in broad daylight in the full glare of TV cameras and in the presence of police officers. If anyone ever doubted the sense of impunity among the political class, that doubt has now been replaced by a deep foreboding that we are helplessly being led towards Armageddon by our so-called leaders. How does one process the fact that many of those summoned by the hapless National Cohesion and Integration and Commission after the chaos were out on bail pending court proceeding on serious criminal charges? MP Aisha Jumwa, for instance, was out on bail on charges relating to a fracas in which a person died when she stormed a political meeting. Rashid Echesa, the cabinet minister caught on camera assaulting an IEBC official, was also out on bail pending court proceedings on criminal charges. Another MP summoned by police was just recently in the news for getting into a physical fight with a fellow legislator at a funereal.

Ordinary Kenyans who have serious charges hanging over their heads would never be caught dead near a crime scene. The risk of having their bail revoked and, therefore, remaining in custody for the duration of the trial on the first charges, while also awaiting trial on charges relating to their second transgression would stop them dead in their tracks. But this is Kenya where politicians get away with murder — literally.

If this impunity is not arrested, we will not avoid an unspeakable end. It behooves the criminal justice system and bodies such as the IEBC and NCIC to ruthlessly crack the whip. We should also consider doing away with endless by-elections and have vacancies arising midterm filled by the party that held the seat. Politicians should also not be allowed to roam around polling stations, much less get inside. Party agents should not be drawn from sitting or former MPs.

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Equally important, the media must adopt a reporting style that ceases to unwittingly glamorise buffoonery, violence and hate speech.

Tee Ngugi is a Nairobi-based political commentator

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This article was first published in The EastAfrican newspaper on March 13, 2021.

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