Jubilee Evolved Into Worse Dictatorship Than Kanu

koigiwamwere.pngAnyone with eyes to see and ears to hear can clearly see that Jubilee government is slowly but surely metamorphosing into a dictatorship that may turn worse than Kanu under both Kenyatta and Moi. Why is dictatorship enveloping the land without protest? Kenyans have forgotten cruelties of dictatorship and are embracing it again. Unfortunately, Kenyans have worse memories than warthogs. Two, dictatorship has life and abhors death. Since it lost power, it has been fighting to regain power and now it has. Three, Kenyans have allowed the political children of Kenyatta and Moi to inherit power and with it their dictatorships. Four, we have forgotten the warnings of traditional wisdom that “the young of a leopard claws like its mother” and “the young of a snake is also a snake.” When the son of Haitian dictator Papa Doc inherited power from his father, he became Baby Doc or baby dictator. Leaders sired by political dictators can only become dictators. Frankly, Jubilee rule is dyed in the wool dictatorship whose true nature is becoming clearer by the day. But many will deny and dismiss claims of dictatorship arguing that no elected government can be a dictatorship. Yet this is not true. Some worst dictators came to power through democracy and popular elections. Already, there are many tell tale signs and indicators that Jubilee government is dictatorship, however disguised and camouflaged in democratic garbs. Despite Kenyan constitution that demands that any leader who commits an international crime will not be exempted from prosecution when in power, Jubilee government has successfully lobbied African Union to change its constitution for non prosecution of African presidents and their deputies when they commit crimes while in power. Exempting leaders from rule of law while in power can only make them terrible dictators. Information from the Hague confirm that, as in the case of Robert Ouko, where all the witnesses were eliminated, witnesses likely to give evidence against leaders will most likely be eliminated. Worse, Bill to fight Al Shabaab terrorism in Kenya now promises to increase rather than decrease dictatorship in governance making Kenyans victims of both terrorism and dictatorship. But unless leaders are looking for an excuse to impose dictatorship, the fight against terrorism should increase democracy which terrorism strives to kill. If the fight against terrorism decreases democracy and self-expression, terrorism will have won because its primary objective is to kill democracy through acts of terror and fear. Unfortunately, government looks hell bent on embracing dictatorship to fight terrorism thereby subjecting Kenyans to double terrorisms, one of our own dictatorship and the other of Al Shabaab dictatorship. Though no freedom or democracy can survive without freedom of the media, already media is self-censoring under pressure to protect Jubilee government. Recently we read of Maina Kiai complaining of editors blocking his articles in the Nation expressing certain positions on ICC and other issues. When I partook in a K24 TV project telling the story of second liberators, my documentary was withheld when it was to come out, to give editor and its producer time to remove response of detainees to the death of President Kenyatta in 1978, removal of opinions against President Jomo Kenyatta’s rule and insertion of the impression that second liberation was fought as a reaction and resistance against Moi rule only. Many Jubilee supporters have adopted the stance that we need a dictator like Paul Kagame – whose government has been eliminating opponents like Patrick Karegeya – to develop. But they fail to answer why 40 years of one party dictatorship did not develop Kenya and Africa, ruining them instead. Fortunately both Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga are more democratic than their sycophants who bay for dictatorship and blood of fellow Kenyans. Tragically, as long as negative ethnicity is the ideology of our politics, there are communities who will support tyranny as long as it is ethnic dictatorship of our ethnic king. Sprouting dictatorship is therefore not without support. To pave the way for dictatorship, a campaign to demonize ICC has been successfully launched to stop it blocking the advent and advance of dictatorship in Kenya and Africa. But ICC has been demonized along with rule of law and democracy. Unfortunately, efforts of Kenya government have succeeded in weakening ICC and forcing it to forfeit principles of equality and effective protection of witnesses. People who had faith in ICC now believe it is not much stronger than local courts. It cannot protect witnesses. It cannot stop bad guys coming to power. Governments can defy its orders with impunity. It cannot guarantee justice to victims of crimes against humanity. There is no worse government than dictatorship but it will succeed if Kenyans don’t put maximum efforts to stop it. Unfortunately, like other evil systems, dictatorship has its beneficiaries who will fight for it until they fall victim to it. As we learnt from the ill fate of William Lasoi, Kariuki Chotora or even Robert Ouko, Tom Mboya and Josphat Karanja, those who supported Kanu dictatorship ended up being its victims just like those who opposed it. To fight dictatorship Kenyans must first free themselves from the Stockholm syndrome that enslaves victims of oppression to their oppressors making themselves their own worst enemies and their liberation near impossible. Above all, Kenyans must know for sure that dictatorship is “mtego wa panya, uanaonasa waliokuwemo na wasiokuwemo” – a rat trap that kills targets and non targets equally. Because none of us is safe from dictatorship, we must all fight against it.