WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18, 2014

How can a massacre go on for two nights without intervention?

In Summary

  • The access to Lamu by sea is much easier and much more porous than even the desert-like conditions of the North.
  • If the perpetrators are known, shouldn't the Director of Public prosecution be dragging someone to court and Mutunga and his team identifying that part of the law that allows Kenyans to throw such a person into a dark hole and throw the key into the sea?
By Muthoni Thang'wa
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How is it that no public figure makes any sense when Kenyans need consolation most?

Who on God's green earth writes the speeches for Interior Cabinet Secretary, Mr. Joseph ole Lenku?

More importantly, why does he read them to the public? Nothing he says inspires any confidence in Kenyans that there is someone making efforts to make them safe. Actually he makes us feel like we are on our own, and it is our fault and the fault of political inciters' that 60 innocent Kenyans are dead in Mpeketoni.

What does he mean someone has crossed a red line? And what does Police Inspector General Mr Kimaiyo mean when he says that some police officers will go down before he does? What kind of generals hide behind their men or red lines?

To bring it home, what kind of a father would hide behind his nursery school children in a home burglary? What would a police officer do to a group that enters a Police Station, guns blazing and leaves death, destruction and a burned building in their wake?

Mpeketoni is a little previously-beautiful, fast-growing town in Lamu County on which landless Kenyans (predominantly from the Kikuyu community) were settled around Lake Kenyatta by the first president of Kenya. This created Mpeketoni Settlement Scheme.

A colleague passed by the town in March this year on his way to the Lamu World Heritage Site and he told us that the populations there were 'sitting ducks'. When we asked what he meant, he said Al Shabaab can take 'take them out' any time.

SECURITY "MACHINERY"

It is easy to see how one can think of Al-Shabaab, given that Lamu County forms part of Kenya's boundary with Somalia. The access by sea is much easier and much more porous than even the desert-like conditions of the North. Especially given that all African communities living along the coastline are skilled sailors and national maritime maps are meaningless.

But as Kenyans are trying to digest the thought that not even my village 'town' in Ikinu is safe, the President addresses the nation and states that the killings are internally instigated. That is enough to knock all hope out of Kenyans. The very idea is abominable. Could this be true?

 The security 'machinery' in Lamu has been sacked too. This still does not inspire any confidence in Kenyans. On the other hand, for the President to make such a statement he must have concrete evidence, otherwise it completely defies logic.

If there was intelligence on a massacre, why was the 'real' security machinery sitting pretty in Nairobi, only to rush to the ground after the fact? How can the massacre go on for two nights, Sunday and Monday without any intervention? If the perpetrators are known, shouldn't the Director of Public prosecution be dragging someone to court and Mutunga and his team identifying that part of the law that allows Kenyans to throw such a person into a dark hole and throw the key into the sea?

Strangely though the Al-Shabaab group has claimed responsibility for the killings, or so the media says. Also of interest is the destruction of earthly property such as cars and buildings, which as we all noticed in Westgate, militia men are just not interested in.

I sympathize with the people of Mpeketoni. I am sure they are all affected in one way or the other, many having to bury their loved ones, reconstruct both their business and their world view. After all the talk the locals will be on their own, with the Red Cross and hopefully the county government, trying to make sense of the events of Sunday and Monday night.

Twitter: @muthonithangwa