I may be imagining things.

Maybe I am imagining things that aren't there but that there is a fevered "debate" on homosexuality when the bodies of one hundred and forty seven Kenyans are not yet cold in their graves may be a Houdini-like illusion designed to shift our attention. 

In April 1995, the Alfred P Murrah Building was bombed by Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols and one hundred and sixty eight people, including children, were killed. The United States government held several inquiries into the attack. The Department of Justice issued the Vulnerability Assessment of Federal Facilities, also known as The Marshals Report, the findings of which resulted in a thorough evaluation of security at all federal buildings and a system for classifying risks at over 1,300 federal facilities owned or leased by the federal government.

 In the wake of 9/11, the United States government appointed the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, also known as the 9/11 Commission, which published the  9/11 Commission Report, formally named Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States. Its primary conclusion was that the failures of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation permitted the terrorist attacks to occur and that had these agencies acted more wisely and more aggressively, the attacks could potentially have been prevented.

A democracy, even a flawed one like Kenya, cannot shy away from hard truths, and the United States, a more flawed democracy than most would care to agree, does not. It learns lessons, even wrong lessons, from each tragedy and it strives to apply those lessons to its future actions. Kenya has been at war with the Shabaab since 2011. Between the attack on Mwaura's Bar and Garissa University College, the government is yet to hold a single inquiry. Its responses have been leaden-footed and predictable. The consequences of its reactions have been an escalation in attacks, culminating in the Garissa attack.

The President exhorts us to take part in the security of the nation. "Security begins with you" he declares. Perhaps so. But before we know what we are supposed to do, we must know what we did not do or what we did wrong. A national inquiry is long overdue. There are those who suggest that any sort of doubt about what the government has proposed is unpatriotic and treasonous. Before Kenyans can be roped in as able partners in the security of the nation, the least they can be allowed is to know how and why there have been failures in securing the nation in the first place.

Most Kenyans are willing to play a contributing role in keeping other Kenyans safe. They will sacrifice their time and other resources in this cause. However, the "true patriots" must remember that Kenyans are no longer sheep to be led around without reasoning. In an Information Age, Kenyans know significantly more than they did a decade ago and they are more discerning about what to trust. Few of us trust the securocracy. It is time we had an inquiry into what it it is, what it does, why it has failed and what it can do to improve and earn our trust. Anything else is a waste of time.