Where is our gun industry?

Sic vis pacem, parabellum. (To make peace, prepare for war.)

Only the very naive still cling to the notion that advances in science and technology have peaceful ends.Since man first fashioned a tool to cope with the harsh environment in which he found himself, he swiftly figured out that tools could also be weapons. And the moment that man discovered weapons, he found enemies as well. (And not just the mastodons rampaging in the wild.) The most famous twentieth century weapons are not the atomic bomb or the ballistic missile, grand as they may seem, but the internet and the global positioning system (GPS). Both provide the most crucial resources during armed conflict: the ability to communicate and the ability to determine where one is in relation to ones enemies. These have now become standard fare on consumer goods such as mobile phones and fancy-pants German-engineered fast cars.

It is for this reason that this most pacifist of bloggers believes that Kenya should invest, and invest heavily, in an arms industry. We do not mean the piddly little "bullet" factory somewhere secret in the Rift valley. No! What we mean is that this nation must live as the Jewish State of Israel does: with threats all around and its military strength as the only bulwark against the coming hordes. That strenght comes from a thriving arms industry. General Eisenhower called it the Military/Industrial Complex and he warned against its influence on US policy. But Kenya is not the USA and Kenya needs all the help it can get if it is to surmount its economic and security challenges.

We have tried the two systems; none has worked. Kenya focused its energies on a state-led development model; it bankrupted us. We have tried a private-sector-led model; it corrupted the last remaining bastions of integrity in the system. It is time we re-tried the botched model of state and private sector partnerships that were bastardised during the latter days of Kenyatta the Elder's reign and the full twenty-four years of Baba Moi.

This can be done by building up an "arms" industry from the ground up. To successfully join the global club of gun-manufacturers, there are certain fundamentals that we must get right. Our students, right from the days they are drilled in their ABCs, must be able to count and add with the best the world can throw at them. By the time they are graduating from their universities, technical colleges, secondary schools and primary schools, they must be in possession of skills that will make them more useful to an employer than an automaton with interchangeable software or hardware.

Secondly, the market they generate in their own communities must be capable of employing their skills and  services. It cannot be that every Kamau and his uncle wants to "migrate" to Nairobi, Mombasa or Machakos with dreams of becoming the next Chris Kirubi or Vimal Shah simply because Kerugoya is notorious for drunken murderous APs and and out-of-control chang'aa problem. Thirdly, When disputes arise in the "arms" industry, they must be resolved swiftly and with certainty. In other words, we cannot have our gun-runners questioning whether the courts got it right or were persuaded to get it right with fat wads of untraceable dollars. The integrity of the judicial system must be so high that no doubts will rise about the calibre of the judicial staff nor about the quality of their rulings and judgments.

Uhuru Kenyatta addressed a joint sitting of Parliament yesterday. His vision for this nation is grand; the execution has faced sabotage and incompetence at every turn. Taking "arms" as a McGuffin, Uhuru Kenyatta can re-orient his ambitious vision. he has hinted at his steeliness in the past; it is time he demonstrated that he is beholden to no one or even to a second term. Fire the saboteurs and incompetents. If it means jettisoning sacred cows, so be it.  if Kenyatta the Younger wants to be remembered other that for the PEV, he must build a world class education system, a world class manufacturing-and-export industry, and empower a judiciary that is trusted by even its worst enemies. If he achieves even one of this, President Kenyatta will be a hero to millions upon millions for millennia to come.