Thursday, September 13, 2012

The Butcher's Bill

The grim butcher's bill of 9/11 keeps on rising eleven years after the United States suffered its most devastating attack on the homeland since the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, Hawaii on December 7, 1941. In the  years after 9/11, George Bush's White House neo-conservatives launched a Global war on Terror, exacting revenge on the Taliban hosts of al Qaeda in Afghanistan and invading Iraq in search of weapons of mass destruction. Barack Obama excoriated the Bush government for its pursuit of the dumb war at the expense of the necessary war, but today he finds himself in the untenable position of keeping open the patently illegal prison camp on the Caribbean island of Cuba and ordering the assassination of American citizens who have chosen to fight on the side of America's enemies worldwide. He has expanded George W Bush's War on Terror to far-flung places in the Middle-East and his use of the Predators and reapers has risen dramatically, killing both enemies and innocents alike. If you live in the Middle East, it is wise not to sit in a wedding party lest you become the latest casualty in a war without end.

Kenya must learn lessons from the United States' misadventures on the field of battle. In the past decade and a half, Kenya has witnessed first-hand the ruthlessness of its enemies. The bombing of the United States' embassy in the capital came hundreds of Kenyan casualties. As did the attack on an Israeli-owned hotel at Kikambala on Kenya's sun-kissed Coast. Then there are the home-grown criminal enterprises such as the Mungiki whose reign of terror galvanised the government to extra-legal means to contain them. This year alone, Kenyans have been bombed while traveling, while shopping, while worshiping. And now a growing inter-ethnic conflict is witnessing the introduction of small arms from the ungovernable Somalia, where Kenya has acquitted itself well in its war with al Shabaab. There is also the small matter of the Mombasa Republican Council which the High Court says is a legitimate organisation but the government claims is a front for foreign powers or organisations bent on destabilising the country before the 2013 general election.

Our responses have been poor. Murders are happening and no culprits are brought to book. Allegations are bandied about without proof. Kenyans are dying while their government worries about keeping its political leadership happy. And now public servants have had enough. Promises made have been broken and they have decided to go on strike - teachers, lecturers, doctors, nurses all. We and our government care only for the outcome of the general election. Who the President will be and who it won't be. To a lesser degree of obsession, we also want to know if Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto will indeed stand trial at The Hague. We aren't worrying about what form the government will take, how much we will be asked to pay in taxes, who will run our public institutions or whether we are prepared to sacrifice more for the upkeep of our elected leaders. Our blindness means that when al Shabaab and its acolytes strike, we won't have a sufficient response. We will be caught flatfooted. And innocent Kenyans will continue to pay the price. The butcher's bill only gets grimmer.

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