A worker from a supermarket carts away salvaged goods from the wreckage
of the Westgate mall following a four-day siege by Islamist gunmen that
drew a Kenyan military counter with heavy firepower that left the mall
collapsed in places.Kenya is a den of thieves managed by a
State-sanctioned conglomerate. Everyone steals, or is scheming on how to
steal. This results in a vicious cycle of robberies, and subsequently
poverty, which is supported by a collective conspiracy of silence.
AFP/PHOTO
During the week when Kenyans were agog with
papier-mâché sense of oneness and television stations were playing the
wrong, or rather, the old, national anthem before and after prime news
bulletins, I did my patriotic duty of changing channels whenever the
wrong national anthem was being played and also not using the phrase
used to express the new-found fake unity.
Just a sec! I write the wrong national anthem because the one that was played when Kenya got independence is more than a prayer.
It is inspiring and invigorating; it fills your heart with hope, invokes patriotism and gives you, as a Kenyan, a sense of security.
But since there is so much hopelessness, despondency, distrust, insecurity, heartlessness and sufferance all around the rampant divisiveness, fear, hatred, tribalism and nepotism, the original national anthem has lost meaning.
What makes sense nowadays, and expresses Kenyans’ true feelings, are the chants of Haki Yetu, pleas of Tunaomba Serikali, cries of Sisi ni Maskini and shouts of Sasa ni Wakati Wetu or Watu Wetu Wanaumizwa.
During that week when Kenyans were united in grief, the airwaves were filled with effects of instant coffee journalism — one did not have to be a political analyst to hear the emptiness in the leaders’ promises and see the fakery that underlines Kenyans’ lifestyles.
The praises were just too many, and the confusion was evident in the contradictory pieces of information from the upper levels of governance. It was clear that the worst was still to come.
LOOTENANT GENERALS
And last week, the worst came when it emerged that shops at the “operational theatre” of Westgate were looted.
The accusatory fingers were pointed at the members of the disciplined forces who have come out with their guns blazing to deny any wrong-doing and are instead asking the public to provide information and point them toward the — as creative Kenyans have put it — “lootenant” generals.
Their staccato of denials, and outbursts of explanations and assurances, are seen as a show of one-upmanship, an in-your-face admission that they looted, but it is Kenyans’ patriotic duty to provide the evidence which most probably exploded, went up in smoke or is buried deep under the rubble and will never be unearthed.
But before the forces are further drawn, quartered and hung — in whichever manner — the collective piety needs to stop: Isn’t Kenya a country that is filled with thieves at all levels of the economy and governance?
Is this not the same place where thieves rub shoulders and other body parts with the high and the mighty because they fund electoral campaigns, help their people and questioning their sources of wealth is termed as witch hunting?
THIEVES GALORE
Let’s
face it. Thieves abound in Kenya’s by-lanes, backstreets, garbage
dumps, informal settlements, leafy suburbs, public and private offices,
along the highways, potholed roads, paths, walkways, in the villages,
towns, cities….
Kenya is a den of thieves managed by a State-sanctioned conglomerate. Everyone steals, or is scheming on how to steal. This results in a vicious cycle of robberies, and subsequently poverty, which is supported by a collective conspiracy of silence.
The sad reality is that Kenya is saddled with an easily corruptible Legislature that only shouts its way toward emptying the public coffers; an egocentric Executive that endlessly investigates its own failures then gives only excuses, not reasons or results; an overrated Judiciary that is not only, to coin a phrase, below reproach, and is engulfed in internecine wars within the corridors of injustice; a vacuous, incoherent and easily excitable Fourth Estate that does not ask questions and is governed by media bodies that lack both the communication skills and mental capacity to explain their existance.
The biggest problem is that all of them keep pointing fingers at one another. When they are done blaming one another for their incompetence, they blame foreign powers at whose feet they privately genuflect, begging bowls in hand, and which probably give ordinary Kenyans more assistance than they do.
Yeah, so the aphasia in the governance structures was felt during the tragic events at Westgate, and under the cover of fighting the enemy, rampant looting or blatant robbery occurred. Now, the prime suspects want the public to give more information to facilitate investigations. Wow!
AMNESIA ATTACK
To
be fair, the gallant and valiant forces could have been traumatised and
cannot remember whether they looted or not, and that means only the
beneficiaries of their loot can help unravel the mystery.
Unfortunately,
Kenya is a nation without a soul and there are no upright men or women
who have received part of the looted goods ready to come forward and
report.
You can forgive them for accepting stolen goods and keeping quiet, and instead blame the State’s skewed policies for making them desperate.
However, their benefactors have no excuse because they have betrayed the trust of Kenyans, and proven not only that the enemy is within but that the country lacks disciplined forces who can protect their lives and property — thus, Kenyans should be ready to face more attacks.
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THE DECEPTIVE MEDIA NARRATIVE
The
narrative that Westgate is an ‘upscale mall’ frequented by Westerners
and affluent Kenyans has been making the rounds in local or
international media.
It is not clear who started it between the two but I highly doubt they are right.
I have paid less for a mug of freshly brewed coffee at the Java Coffee House therein than I paid for a cup of hot water and 1.6 grammes of instant, soapy-tasting coffee at an eatery in Nakumatt Lifestyle.
Interviews
of survivors such as Westgate’s cleaners, security officers, parking
attendants, supermarket attendants, wait-staff and cooks of the
restaurants there-in, the cashiers, merchandisers and clerks in its
numerous shops… I mean those who used to serve the so-called affluent
clients, are unheard of. Who knows, maybe, we, the media are also
upscale.
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AND HOW TO HANDLE IT LIKE A BOSS
Those
who come in at the last minute to clear the air are always the bosses
because it is assumed that they are busy getting briefs and/or
coordinating operations and can only come forward to clear the air.
During the Westgate siege, one person whose voice was not heard alongside that of Joseph ole Lenku, who is in charge of internal insecurity, was the civilian defence boss, Raychelle Omamo. Questions about her loud silence abound in the new media.
While other people defended
her absence and said she had no reason to speak up and no role to play
because this was an internal insecurity issue, others argued that since
Kenya Defence Forces were there, and the Chief of General Staff was
always at the side of Ole Lenku, she could have said a word or two, of
course without having to remove her legendary designer dark glasses.
Well, she spoke the other day about the looting allegations. She did not really speak, but issued a statement — when things came to a head. Like a boss.
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