On January 7 2024, a small group of ODM enthusiasts set out to celebrate party chief Raila Odinga’s 79th birthday, at a corner of Tom Mboya Street, Nairobi. They were singing joyfully, and clearly about to cut the cake, when a detachment of police fired teargas on the gathering, scattering the group in different directions.
As if to crown the madness in some bizarre manner, the officers then hurled teargas right on the cakes too, leaving behind a charred mess! It was the most primitive thing I had seen in a long time. Even by the current regime’s very low standards, I had never envisaged a scenario where birthday cakes would ever be considered a security risk, enough to qualify for attacks using state instruments of violence.
To a certain extent, one understands that the carnival atmosphere that graces Raila’s birthday celebrations can make for difficult viewing, especially for people in a government struggling for validation and love. Every year, on that day, supporters of the Azimio boss hold their mini parades of love in parts of the country, to celebrate his birthday, which I suspect doesn’t go down well with the folks across the political divide, whose living ambition is to “send Raila to Bondo”.
But I do not believe that the police chain of command was aware of, or authorised the teargassing of birthday cakes. Mercifully, the Inspector General of Police condemned the action the following day and promised to mete out disciplinary measures, but no one is holding their breath for it.
Nevertheless, as with all uniformed services, a breakdown of discipline within a small platoon is often a pointer to discipline problems in the bigger organisation, or at the very least, command issues. The manner of shouting among the officers, as they teargassed the cakes, suggested they harboured personal loathing for either the birthday boy, or cakes!
If both statements hold true, IG Japhet Koome has bigger problems than just restoring discipline in the force. Whether it is commanders at lower levels using officers to perpetuate tribal or political divisions, ultimately, the divisions slowly creep through the entire force. It's simple: officers come from everywhere in the country, and any section breaking the apolitical code encourages others to do the same.
There is a reason the military remains the most credible and trusted institution in the country. For one, the training and indoctrination is thorough and firm. More importantly, it shields itself admirably from politicians, civilians and their inherent divisions. If an army major in charge of a detachment in a remote area was to lose his head and allow his troops to go on the rampage, the disciplinary action would be instant and real, and the military bosses wouldn’t bother to call the press about it. It is a key ingredient lacking in the police force; this respect for rules and regulations.
It is not just this police incident that spooked me about a consistent pattern of discipline becoming alien in the country. I’ll highlight a few.
One was a viral clip in which parents at a certain school, angry over what they considered poor performance in the just released KCSE results, marched into the school, assisted quite predictably by boda boda riders, and frogmarched the school’s principal out in the most humiliating way.
I have had conversations with several school principals in recent times. It is probably the most thankless job in Kenya today, which may explain rumours that many in the profession do not fancy being promoted to the position. In most schools today, principals are grappling with huge fees arrears, angry suppliers demanding their dues and a largely unresponsive government sitting on schools’ capitation.
Amidst this crisis, self-entitled parents, the same ones whose children owe the schools millions of shillings, have a habit of demanding that with such minimal resources, the teachers and principals have to deliver in tandem with other top, well-resourced schools in the nation. What many of my fellow parents will not appreciate is that once we march into schools and frogmarch teachers all over, they lose the authority in the eyes of the children to go back to class and deliver the results we desire.
If you were worried about school children and lost authority among teachers, you still have to contend with some elected legislators going all gangland in broad daylight. Much has been said about the antics of South Mugirango MP Sylvanus Osoro and his rivalry with Kisii Governor Simba Arati. On at least two occasions, Osoro has invaded functions presided over by the latter, resulting in violence and destruction. The last time round, at a bursaries issuance fete in South Mugirango, shots were fired and injuries reported.
While the ugly violence meted out by the MP was still the trending news in the country, his Mumias East counterpart Peter Salasya, the newest clown in town, was captured on camera assaulting a local MCA in the constituency. As you would probably expect, Salasya was promptly arrested, but Osoro remains free, despite growing calls for his arrest and arraignment in court. By the way, it is important to note that all these recent happenings are in the same country that sent former Deputy CJ Nancy Barasa home for pinching the nose of a mall guard. She must wonder, when she sees the level public figures can reach these days.
Perhaps we are called upon to accept that the precedent had duly been set by people already serving in government, like Kimilili MP Didimus Barasa and Gender CS Aisha Jumwa, whose court cases took a near-predictable turn once their party took power. The problem with this impunity underwritten by government patronage is that as with all other forms of crimes, it encourages people to grow the belief that state instruments of justice will not be there for them should they call upon them. It is the perfect recipe for anarchy and vigilante rule.
I point out these cases because even though they are just few in a rather eventful country, the fact that they begin to show a pattern of normalcy can only mean that we as a country have resigned to a lower moral code, especially in public service. That wouldn’t be a problem until we accept that if these are a microcosm of the national fabric, then this decline in discipline and common decency flows right through national institutions too. That does not exclude government agencies from which we expect services and goods of the highest quality.
We are already familiar with the indiscipline of motorists on our roads, and we accept it as our way of life. Our transport sector is probably the most chaotic of all. But this mentality, looked at closely, has become so entrenched that both the government and citizens do not take a moment to internalise that our economy, our way of life, our elective offices and our families are slowly burdened by a nation that has thrown discipline out of the window to live just “one day a time”. Imagine for a moment that this overly normalised reality, already widely accepted, slowly finds its way into the institutions previously spared this emerging culture. Like the military! We really need to restore discipline into the national fabric in this country.
The writer is a political commentator