It has taken time for the President to acknowledge that the networks responsible for the decimation of pachyderms in the nation's game parks, national reserves and conservancies are the same networks that are smuggling narcotics, sugar, al Shabaab fighters and small arms into Kenya. Now that he has made that intellectual leap of faith, it is time he acts on it with ruthlessness and determination. Baba Jimmi will be remembered for the Thika Superhighway - and the Mungiki extra-legal executions. Uhuru Kenyatta should be remembered as the President who set his unforgiving hand against the poachers, the bombers, the robbers, the smugglers and the murderers of the peoples of Kenya and decreed their extermination as a matter of the highest national priority.
As with everything in this country to which "billions of shillings" has a more than a casual relationship, narco-trafficking has its tentacles in the highest political offices in the land. There are those who whisper of links between Kenyan corporations, politicians, senior government officials and foreign narco-barons. Even the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime agrees that while narcotics use in Kenya is growing, Kenya is still a "trans-shipment hub" of narcotics destined for European markets from South America and the war-torn Middle Eastern regions comprising Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq.
President Kenyatta defied a magistrate's order and oversaw the destruction of the MV Bushehr and its cargo of heroin worth one billion shillings which was intercepted in July. He echoed a similar event by Baba Moi in 1989 when he set on fire ivory, rhino horns and other wildlife trophies and set himself the arduous task of combating poaching. Then, Baba Moi's Ministry of Environment and Natural Resource's Department of Wildlife Conservation was a haven of corruption, under-resourced and unmotivated to protect Kenya's wildlife heritage. Mr Moi appointed Richard Leakey and supported him in the establishment of the Kenya Wildlife Service which became the sharp end in the war against poaching, notching up successes for a decade or so. Before politics intervened. Mr Leakey was fired and KWS went into a steep decline. Not even the maverick directorship of Julius Kipng'etich could rescue it and Mr Kipng'etich called it quits after eight years and moved on to Equity banking.
Uhuru Kenyatta is not the first President to face the challenge of dealing with narco-barons. Baba Jimmi did in 2005. It is safe to say he blew his chance. Uhuru Kenyatta has the chance to prevail. His enemy is multifaceted and operates on multiple fronts, but Mr Kenyatta has the support of a majority of most Kenyans. His biggest threats, however, are not to be found among the actual poachers, bombers, robbers, smugglers or murderers. No! His biggest threats are the men and women in uniform in the disciplined and police forces, the compromised intelligence officers, the bent customs and immigration officers and the members of his own party who are in the pay of the foreigners determined to turn Kenya into a bastardised version of Colombia.
Kenya is at war and by destroying the MV Bushehr President Kenyatta has declared that the battle has been joined. President Kenyatta has appointed a new Director of National Intelligence and a new Director Immigration. Every Kenyan hopes that he is soon to appoint a new Inspector-General of Police, a new Cabinet Secretary of the Interior and a new Principal Secretary in the Interior Ministry. He has nominated an ally as ambassador to Washington, DC; we hope Robinson Njeru Githae knows how to negotiate for better narcotics counter-trafficking intelligence.
This is not part of the #TeamDigital rubbish that so animates the Coalition for Reforms and Democracy. This is a fight for the soul of the nation. If his government is going to take on the poachers, bombers, robbers, smugglers and murderers, then he must lead the fight by doing what must be done. He must purge his administration of dead weight and corrupt malcontents. He must purge the ranks of the police, the intelligence community, the defence forces, the immigration service and the customs authorities. He must purge the ranks of the civil service and he must take a blowtorch to the one hiding in his party or in Parliament.
If President Kenyatta is looking for a legacy, it will not be found in resolving the Land Question, or providing laptops for primary school children or even for the Huduma Bora initiatives. It will be when he destroys the agents of destruction decimating our wildlife and using our beautiful coastline as a way station for the narcotics that have destroyed millions of lives all over the globe.
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