Jubilee has failed to rein in terror and corruption

President Kenyatta addresses a press conference at State House in Nairobi on May 16, 2014. FILE PHOTO | SALATON NJAU |  NATION MEDIA GROUP

In Summary

• Under the Jubilee coalition, Kenya’s enemies have grown in strength and effectiveness.

By RAILA ODINGA
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The recent attack by Al-Shabaab on a military camp in Lamu signalled a new and troubling phase in Kenya’s war against terrorists. Sadly, two soldiers were killed in the operation in which they performed admirably. We are deeply sorry for their loss.

Still, that the insurgents were brazen enough to attack a camp of the Kenya Defence Forces was cause for concern. While 11 of these terrorists were killed, we should be mindful that the attack was not a demonstration of weakness but of desperate determination.

Since 2010, terror attacks in Kenya have gathered momentum leading to the death and maiming of hundreds of citizens and security officers. The biggest spike was in 2012 with 90 dying in 75 attacks. In 2013, 43 attacks killed 157 and last year, 62 attacks killed 290. The numbers continue to mount. 

Under the Jubilee coalition, Kenya’s enemies have grown in strength and effectiveness. As their ferocity has increased, the Jubilee administration has responded with hubris and incompetence.

In June last year, Al-Shabaab attacked Lamu’s Mpeketoni township murdering almost 50 people. President Uhuru Kenyatta immediately pronounced this the work of the Opposition in a blatant baseless claim.

This has served to create the bizarre situation where the population believes Al-Shabaab’s statements over those of their own Head of State where security is concerned. Worse still, his officials had ignored actionable intelligence preceding the attack that had been shared with them by our own agencies and foreign friends. 

This combined with corruption that’s endemic in all government institutions including the security services, has literally hollowed out key agencies leaving the country open to its enemies.

At the same time, the terrorists have now effectively Kenyanised with an Al-Shabaab Kenyan franchise developing quickly fed by youth disillusioned with the high cost of living, unemployment, corruption and the lies told by senior officials.

For its part, Jubilee has relied on chest-thumping and militarisation of its response to the Al-Shabaab phenomenon at the very time it is morphing from a ‘foreign Somalia-based’ enemy to a locally-based fledgling insurgency. Instead of trying to win hearts and minds, the administration has relied excessively on a securitised and technology-based response — complete with shadowy corrupt contracts that further feed the maelstrom of corruption that now swirls around the President and his deputy personally.

In turn, this is compounded by the mistreatment of members of the Kenyan Somali and Muslim communities including extrajudicial killings of their leaders. This has been accompanied by the rape and collective punishment of profiled communities, and the maltreatment of civil society and media in general and more specifically shutting down of respected Muslim NGOs like Muhuri and Haki Africa.

These actions alienate entire communities.

No vision of a united Kenya informs the government’s approach to terrorism and it clearly does not have a holistic strategy in place. Indeed, the President has not seen it fit to even visit the areas at the Coast and in northern Kenya that have been most affected by the curse of Al-Shabaab. He needs to go there and reassure the Kenyan people.

Terrorism is above party politics. If he is fearful, I can accompany him. I travelled there a week ago and can attest to the patriotism and commitment of the Kenyans there under difficult circumstances.

While the administration is fond of making high-sounding speeches against corruption, it is now clear that total impunity attends to it. Indeed the anti-corruption authority, and the State Law Office together make up a giant laundromat through which public officers accused of being involved in corruption are washed through before being declared innocent.

This is a cynical betrayal of the Kenyan people and one understands why Kenya continues to slide down the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index. In 2012, Kenya scored 27 and the same in 2013. In 2014, we slid down to 145 out of 175 countries, in league with a coterie of failing and failed states and outright kleptocracies. We are now ranked where we were during the worst days of the Moi era.

In March this year I was the only leader who came out strongly against the legally dubious public relations gimmick the President orchestrated during his State of the Nation address by releasing to Parliament the unredacted, incomplete and confidential investigation report of the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC).

The result has been unsurprising: the EACC has melted down and the so-called fight against corruption has become a national joke, at best a gigantic cover-up straight from State House.

Even more recently, we’ve witnessed what is the beginning of the opening of the pandora’s box that is the Devolution ministry.

With its multiplicity of shady contracts and projects that pose a threat to national security, for example as regards the National Youth Service (NYS), this department has posed the most consistent stumbling block to devolution, let alone the dishing out of overpriced contracts to political mercenaries.

It is laughable that the Cabinet Secretary, caught out in shady deals by the Central Bank of Kenya, proceeded to spin a yarn of lies about saving millions of shillings. 

Jubilee must get to the bottom of the theft going on at the Ministry of Devolution with a thorough independent forensic audit of the NYS, including its budget, recruitment, training manual, ethnic and regional composition of its recruits.

In the so-called war on corruption, it is getting clear that the President is trading the interests of the people of Kenya for political support. The only people the President is keen to actagainst are those who will not affect the tribal political dynamics on whichhis presidency rests. This is evident from the results of the just concluded investigations.

Only the politically dispensable individuals are being charged. All the others have been consecrated to be “holy cows”.

Corruption charges have become the currency by which President Kenyatta purchases political power and support. The regime is suffering immense credibility gap.

Devoid of a strategy to deal with either corruption or terrorism, the Jubilee administration has now become the primary driver of spreading insecurity in Kenya. Wherever the government goes - be it in the form of leaders, security agencies or bureaucrats - insecurity deepens. This is an indictment the Kenyan state cannot afford.

Vacuous speeches, hash tags, deepening repression and undermining the spirit and letter of our Constitution cannot fight terrorism and corruption. All my political life I have fought for the new constitutional order we ushered in August 2010. I shall not stand by and watch it torn to shreds and millions of Kenyans stand with me in this resolve.

The writer is Cord coalition and ODM Party leader