Commentary By Leo Odera Omolo

KENYA is arguably sitting on the time bomb, which could explode at anytime making the country ungovernable and further being classified as a failing state by the international community.

Endless political wrangling among the Grand Coalition partners, massive corruption, insecurity could cost the country much needed economic growth and political stability.

And of course, some of us, particularly those who were around in the late 1940s and 1950s would agree with me that the emergence of the Mungiki sect has some credible resemblances with the beginning of the Mau Mau uprising in 1948-1950 leading to the declaration of the State of Emergency in 1952.

THE Mau Mau uprising had stated in similar fashion with the massacre of villagers in Nyeri and Fort-Hall ( Now Murang’a} districts. Its activities later spread like bush fire into the entire Mt. Kenya and the Rift Valley regions.

At first, the colonial administration’s intelligence network was caught napping with their pants down. The colonial administration and the white settlers had dismissed the Mau Mau as simple as petty as the result of conflicts between the “haves and the have not”.But the Mau Mau uprising later developed into a bloodiest confrontation between the Kikuyu peasants and the ruling elite.

And the government of the day can only ignore and dismiss Mungiki sect as a bunch of criminal gangs hell bent on extortion and intimidation at its own peril. The sect is well organized with ill-0intention to plunge this country into a distasteful bloodiest unprecedented chaos.

The Mau Mau had began its activities in the same style. But the conflict later turned into a total war that claimed the lives of close to 22,000 Africans, mainly members of the Kikuyu and other Mt. Kenya communities like the Meru and Embus against a small number of whites {Europeans and settlers}.According to the old British papers less than 2000 whites died in the Mau Mau war.

The night attack in which 28 villagers in Mathira, Nyeri were killed by the suspect Mungiki followers must not be downplayed by the authorities as simple act of criminals.

This is a life threatening situation, which calls for decision and policy makers in this country to act with speed to deal with the situation precisely before it got out of hand.The Mungiki menace must be handled decisively. with all the powers at the disposal of the government..

Judging from reports appearing in the columns of local newspapers from other parts of the country and its capital, Nairobi many precious lives are being lost on daily occurrences basis in the hands of the trigger happy policemen and also in the hands of organized armed gangs of criminal thugs.

Surely, Kenya is on cross-road with her security system on the verge of total collapse making the government so invisible. If our ruling class had no capacity of restoring law and order , I am afraid Kenya could bleed to death.

Towards the end of last year, our country had witnessed the endless school strikes and massive destructions of school property by protesting students. Millions of shilling was lost as the result of the torched school properties..

Also not to forget the rising incidents of inter-communal armed conflicts. Bloody attacks by cattle rustlers in the North Rift, tribal clashes over land dispute in the Rift Valley, cross tribal incursions between th4 Kipsigis and the Kisiis and between the Kuria and the Massai in Trans-Mara, the so-called killing of suspected witches in the Coast and In Kisii regions and the reported daily shoot-outs between the police and criminal gangs in Nairobi and elsewhere only strengthened the suspicion that the country is on the verge of total collapse.

The emergence of vigilante groups are just reminisces of the old rivalries between the Mau Mau freedom fighters and the “Home Guards” and collaborators with the colonialists who the fighters had vowed to punish.

The Mathira and Kirinyaga massacres are similar to the Lri massacre of 1958 in Kiambu district which close to 70 villagers were massacred and whipped out by Mau Mau fighters.

Surely, one may be left to wonder as to what is the role the recently re-modified security intelligence services in this country. The National Security Intelligence Services{NISIS} was a few years ago separated and de-linked from the Kenya Police where it operated before under the name of Special Branch. This, we were told, was meant to make the spy organization more effected in its handling of security of the national intelligence matters with efficiency and much more accuracy.

But despite all the changes, the country has had several terrorists attack against the various facilities resulting in the loss of lives of hundreds of Kenyans. The incursion of external forced{Uganda} who seized the tiny fishing island in Lake Victoria only adds to despair that our security intelligence system has collapsed.

So far close to 50 Kenyans have lost their precious lives within a period of one month in Kirinyaga and Nyeri region in the conflict of interested between the self-styled militia groups acting as vigilantes group conducting community policing and the Mungiki sect members on revenge.. I am sure the government should have had first hand information about the activities of these warring groups in advance before the ugly incidents occurred.

Another thing, which is the source of the conflicts, is the fire-spitting utterances by some politicians and party activists and operatives. Our current MPs are the culprits for loose tongues. The current parliament is full of political mediocre. Political mediocrity and naivety are the cause of numerous armed conflicts here and there.

President Kibaki and the Prime Minister Raila Odinga shall be judged harshly by the future historians if they fails to return sanity to this country and allow it to slide into political quagmire.

ENDS
leoderaomolo@yahoo.com

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Date: Fri, 24 Apr 2009 01:41:35 -0700 [04/24/2009 03:41:35 AM CDT]
From: Leo Odera Omolo
Subject: IS THE NYERI AND KIRINYAGA MASSACRES SIGNIFYING THE BEGINNING OF NEW MAU MAU UPRISING