SOCIETY TALK: Why must the rains always cause pains?
Not much has changed since the last floods
1mon agoNABILA HATIMYSasa
A million questions and emotions are bubbling through my head right now. Just like the many Kenyans who are opening X are feeling. We all saw that video of the armed cop (I’m not sure which branch of the military he belongs to) assault and kill an unarmed bystander for no reason.
The 15-second video showed two armed cops approaching a lone bystander. They push him around, one hits him on the back with the shaft, and before he can fall to the ground, the other cop shoots him. At point-blank range! I mean, they were barely 10 inches between the two!
Eli Joshua, as he has been identified, was a street vendor standing alone outside a closed shop. He did not have a stone or weapon on him. He had a bag full of masks, which he hawked in the city centre.
We might not know his story yet, but from the events, we can deduce that he was another Kenyan trying to make it through the day. Even on a protest day like today, he came to town hoping to sell his wares. Instead, he was gunned down for no reason.
At this point, as Kenyans, we have no words left. The story of Albert Ojwang was hijacked by the police as they tried to create all types of narratives with forged documents, press statements and deleted CCTV footage.
Yet when Kenyans march to the streets to demand a clear answer to the question of “what happened to Albert Ojwang?” the police decide to prove their lawlessness in front of the whole world.
By 9pm on Tuesday, this video would have circulated the globe and made many headlines in countries that will marvel at our lawless law enforcers. The level of audacity and complacency represented in that video has proved to us that the Kenyan police have been allowed free reign over law for far too long. It has clearly gotten to their heads. It is evident that they have been getting away with murder for the longest time.
When questions are asked about specific cases, evidence is buried, stories are made up and excuses are given. The truth hardly ever sees the light of day.
Why? There is clearly a hierarchy at play. Ruto uses the police to do his bidding, and he in turn covers up for their crimes. The lawmakers we elected into Parliament and the high-ranking officials in police and military posts are puppeted into servitude. They shamelessly perjure themselves in front of the public and take no accountability or retraction of their false statements.
It is unfortunate that all the cases of police brutality and murder in Kenya will almost always go unpunished. The top dogs like Eliud Lagat will always ‘step aside as investigations continue’, but will likely never face consequences. Meanwhile, the lap dogs who carry the executions will be paraded in front of courts and cameramen for a few days before disappearing into obscurity.
The whole system is rotten. The only way for us to move on to a better Kenya is to uproot the whole diseased plant. At this point it is not just Ruto who must go, the disease has spread. Even if we got rid of the top guy, the infected, conniving lot are still hiding in our midst. For us to lay the foundation of the Kenya we want to leave behind for our kids, they must ALL go!
