{UAH} What Kenya terrorists have done to Uhuru, movies and the newspapers - Opinion - nation.co.ke

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What Kenya terrorists have done to Uhuru, movies and the newspapers - Opinion

By Charles Onyango-Obbo
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So Tuesday evening "unknown" gunmen shotradical cleric Sheikh Abubakar Shariff, more popularly known as Makaburi.

Makaburi seemed to be seducing fate. He was a self-professed member of the Al-Qaeda and Al-Shabaab Fan Club. He also applauded last September's Al-Shabaab attack on the Westgate mall that killed 70 people. On social media, there were few tears for Makaburi.

Last weekend, terrorists attackedchurch worshippers killing several of the Lord's flock. And on Monday, two terrorist bombs went off in the bustling Eastleigh suburb. Six Kenyan families were left mourning their loved ones, and 20 more nursing their injured.

These events are already changing many things in Kenya. In October 2011, Kenya sent its military into southern Somalia to flush out Al-Shabaab from the border region. The militants were crossing into Kenya, abducting humanitarian workers, and attacking coastal resorts.

The bigger goal of the Kenya campaign in Somalia was, really, to create a secure path for the planned massive Lamu Port and South Sudan Ethiopia Transport (Lapsset) railway, pipeline, and fibre-optic corridor that former President Mwai Kibaki launched in 2012.

War is uncertain business, and Kenya remains in Somalia today as part of the African Union peacekeeping force there, Amisom. The Kenya military has achieved its objective of stopping Al Shabaab cross-border raids, but the militants morphed into something you cannot defeat with a large army — terrorists.

Terrorist activities in the areas bordering Somalia have increased sharply over the last year.

It is perhaps no accident that since President Kenyatta came to power last year, we hardly hear of Lapsset — and he has instead invested his political energies far away from the Somalia border, on the standard gauge railway, which largely follows the path of the old Kenya-Uganda Railway. Terrorism, it would seem, will delay – if not kill off — Lapsset.

That is not the only unintended consequence of terrorism. I used to be a big fan of big screen movies. I haven't been to a movie theatre in Nairobi since last September. I am not alone.

Are fewer people in Nairobi watching movies, therefore? No. When the terrorists scared folks off movie theatres, pirates gave them an alternative. Anecdotal evidence from a pirate source suggests that the sales of bootleg movies are up big time.

Al-Shabaab, you might say, became the marketing manager for pirates. The ironical thing about this is that Al-Shabaab bans TV and DVDs in the areas under its control yet its actions are driving up the consumption of what it prohibits.

Then, last year, the government banned buses from travelling at night to reduce accidents. Little did it know that it was denying those terrorists who used to set off bombs at bus stations in the Riverside Road area targets. So, again by sheer accident, the night-bus ban might end up saving more people from terror bombs than from accidents.

The other day, a senior editor told me that attacks on churches in Nairobi and the coast that started in late 2011 have been driving away worshippers.

Again, that doesn't mean fewer people are praying. They are praying, but at home. Those religious services on TV are the new churches, and families are turning their living rooms into prayer rooms to follow preachers on the tube.

A much-maligned TV product, it has now acquired new relevance. However, as in many things in life, joy and pain are never shared equally. Indeed, people of a certain age who are true-soul inclined, will remember that good song by The Manhattans, "There's No Me Without You". Part of it goes:

"…there's no wrong without a right And there's no good without a bad And when one man is happy, the other man is sad"

Well, the fact that fewer people are going to Friday and Saturday evening movies, and to church on Sundays and opting for TV pastors, means there are fewer of them out there buying "cinema" editions of weekend papers, and Sunday morning editions.

As a result, the days of record sales of weekend papers across the board seem to be coming to an end. Weekend publishing has been one of the biggest unintended casualties of terror.

I expect Al-Shabaab and its friends will celebrate that bit of news. They are no lovers of the free press.

cobbo@ke.nationmedia.com Twitter: @cobbo3

What Kenya terrorists have done to Uhuru, movies and the newspapers - Opinion - nation.co.ke
http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/What-Kenya-terrorists-have-done-to-Uhuru/-/440808/2267456/-/a12xu8z/-/index.html