Dear Rais

Dear Rais,

It is time you admitted it to yourself. It is pointless to pretend that you do not see what we see, do not fear what we fear, do not know what we know: the men and women whom you have charged with the duty to execute your power to keep the people safe have failed. They continue to fail. Their failures have led to the deaths of Kenyans. Their failures have made you out to be a liar.

It might seem trivial to you, or perhaps it has been trivialised by the men and women you have charged with the safety of the people, but if your government continues to focus all its energy only on the pesky question of national security, you will lose the hearts and minds of the people. It is now almost twelve hours since gunmen opened fire in Mpeketoni. Scores of Kenyans have been murdered. Speculation and suspicion is rife. Yet all we know for sure is that the men and women you have charged with the safety of the people seem clueless; they have been unable to offer assurances that we would believe.

When the Westgate siege - which touched you personally - took place, Kenyans were united foursquare behind you; we supported you because we knew that you would do the right thing. We gave you the benefit of the doubt. We argued that you had hardly settle into your job; your team had yet to gel and work cohesively together. we can no longer do that. You national security team - the men and women you have charged with the safety of the people - are more focused on your next election than in the preservation of the peace or the safety of the people.

Sir, Presidents lose legitimacy if all they care about is their jobs. The presidency is not a job; we did not advertise in the dailies for applicants. We did not care about your curriculum vitae; we believed that your vision for the nation was the best one. You asked us for our vote; we might have had reservations when we gave it to you, but we gave you a strong mandate to govern. In return, you promised to keep us safe. You appointed men and women to do just that. It is time you admitted that David Mole Kimaiyo, Mutea Iringo, Julius Karangi and your entire national security team have failed. They have failed you and they have failed us. It is time for them to go.

We are not entirely oblivious of the lunacy that s the Saba Saba strategy of the Minority Party and we know that you must engage them politically. But your coalition is making your life difficult; you seem to have switched off from the politics and as a result you are getting pummelled from every direction. If you want the people to turn their focus from the inanities of the Minority Party, you must do something bold: sack your national security team; appoint an interim one; hold a commission to determine what we need to do as a nation to avoid being the target of brigands, gangsters and terrorists; and make the commission's report public. If you give us your trust - and confidence - you will not have to worry about your next election. If you insist in following the lead that has been given by the current national security team, it is not the next election that should scare you but that the lunacies of the Minority Party will gain popular support.