Various theories have been raised as the main causes of the spate of student unrest in our schools in th recent past.

The most bizarre reasoning was given by the minister in charge in the floor of parliament. At a time when the world is moving forward, Kenya is moving backwards at full speed, aided by the minister who in normal circumstances, should be at the fore front in championing growth and positive change.

I have looked at the issues raised and I find that we are all refusing to come to terms with reality. There is a general breakdown of law and order in the society, and the sooner we face up to it the better.

As a community of people, we come together every 5 years to put in place a set of new rulers. We then give the President the instruments of power, to uphold and safe guard, to obey and cherish our constitution. In so doing, like in the last elections, the voice of the people ought to be heard.

But when we circumvent the voice of the people with such impunity, then we marshal all the state organs to also circumvent the voice of the people, we court trouble. We set in place the culture of impunity where all and sundry will do as they please because the law and the law enforcers have been compromised.

Our problems become bigger when the President does not obey the law, the law for which he had sworn to obey, uphold and cherish. Things become thicker when the law enforcers, the police, become entangled in politics. They mis the point therein and all they see is the person that they serve, not the law.

We must build a culture where the President must act in accordance with the law, and he must at all times obey the law. We must build a culture where the police must respect the law that they enforce. In our situation, the police do not look at the law, they look at what the appointing authority wants. That creates impunity, and all citizens are alive to such things.

We also have the Judiciary which is supposed to interpret the law whenever there conflict. But when we have a political Judiciary like the one that we do have, one that does not understand the laws that they are meant to interpret, we are creating a bad situation. And all and sundry are alive to the happenings at the Judiciary.

We all know that cases are not won on the merits of law. Cases are won on the expediency of the litigants. The one with the right connections will easily win even the most bizarre of cases that merited outright dismissal. When the Judiciary messes with the people, the people are faithfully watching, and a time will come when the people will rebel against the Judiciary, and that will be a sad time indeed for Kenya.

The consequences of such impunity from the presidency, the police force and the Judiciary are recipes for chaos. If this goes on, we are living on a time bomb. The rebellion that could come from the people is far much more dangerous than what we have seen with school children. Such impunity from the state must end. We must strive to obey law and create some order.

Last year, Kenyans saw their votes stolen with active participation of these institutions. The results was the kind of conflict that we saw that pitted Kenyans against Kenyans. The result was the massive loss of life and property. If it were not for the rapid return to sanity by the two protagonist, Kenya would have exploded a lot more badly.

To safeguard any more of this, we must all respect the will of the people, respect the law, and obey just orders. Without this, we are creating a ripe situation for chaos any other time. I must emphasize, the presidency, the police force and the Judiciary are institutions that are by law established for the good of the country. But if these are the institutions that are used to oppress the people who fund their operations, then a repeat job as the one that we witnessed in January, will tear this country apart.

Such a situation will not win the confidence of all and sundry that these institutions are working for our good. The people might resort to the common law as best as they can. We shall have realized that the written law is fraught with mischief, hence not worth obeying.

The example set by the three afore mentioned institutions has given courage to other state organs and the general public. Impunity manifests itself in how ministers handle their dockets, how teachers ran institutions of learning, how matatus terrorize other motorists by breaking all the known traffic rules, how the Traffic Police stand rudderless every day in our roads, collecting money from matatu drivers instead of directing traffic, how TV editors feed our children pornography everyday on TV, how the radio talk presenters talk nothing but sex everyday on radio, and how parents behave indeferently to the bad habits being developed by their children.

These are the symptoms that drive our society to the precipice. In this kind of a scenario where all behave with impunity, would you expect anything better from our children. They are part of the society, and they see in us what they would want to be. We must all obey th law and set good examples for our children.

What do these children see in us? They see people who have stolen big time running for public office then getting appointed as Ministers. This informs them that despite being a thief, you can be rewarded. They hence grow up wanting to be thieves so that one day they can be Ministers.

They see people who have run down institutions getting better political postings. They see as their role models people who operate corruption cartels that skim the country of Billions of shilling getting state commendations.

They see as their role models pimps and charlatans who seem to be laws unto themselves getting appointed to all important state positions. They see the police break the law, they see the Judiciary return questionable verdict, and then they form an opinion; impunity pays.

If we respect our laws and enforce the same, we will not see thieves in our government. If we respect our laws and enforce the same, we will see no nude show on TV, nor will we hear Maina Kageni talk about nothing but sex everyday.

If we respect our laws and enforce the same, we will not see anymore matatu madness in our roads and the traffic police watch.

If we care for our children, we will not subject a class one pupil to reading History, Geography, Physics and Chemistry as we currently have. If we respect our children, we will not grab all the land that they should use for play fields. If we respect our children, we will not subject them to be taught by people who had failed their preliminary exams. We will not accept failures into Teacher Training Institutions. We will take the best.

If we respect our children, we will not accept journey men who had no interest in the teaching profession to teach our kids. We will take those who have that calling and pay them well to mould the future of our children.

But when we clamp down on mobile phones, on buses and such like non-issues, it enforces our lack of understanding on this serious issue. It brings to mind how pedestrian the government has been handling all issues national.

This is the kind of pedestrian approach to governance that keeps confining Kenya at the lower ends of development.

Odhiambo T Oketch
Komarock Nairobi

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Date: Fri, 8 Aug 2008 01:25:05 -0700 (PDT)
From: odhiambo okecth
Subject: Breakdown of law and order