Militarising freedom

Bullshit! I say again, BULLSHIT!

In the principles of national security, enumerated in excruciatingly dull detail, you will not find the phrase "safeguard our freedoms" in Article 238. The Kenya Defence Forces, KDF< are responsible for the defence and protection of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic. No, not for the freedom of the people according to Article 241 either. So stop with the fairy tales.

The men and women in uniform, when they die, do indeed sacrifice for the greater common good. The Kenya Defence Forces, part of AMISOM, are deployed in Somalia so that al Shabaab does not wage war in the homeland. In the initial stages of the deployment, the KDF were examples to us all of professionalism. But there is an iron law of military engagements: the longer you are deployed, the more likely indiscipline and other challenges to discipline will occur. Westgate offered a clue; the rumours of charcoal dealing still more.

It is important that while we celebrate the professionalism of the KDF that we do not deify them. The problems of cults of personality are well-documented. We must support our fighting men and women when they are deployed in the theatres of war, but we must not avert our eyes to the few who would take advantage of our adulation to commit crimes. It is unlikely, though not unheard of, that the rank and file would commit crimes will in uniform; it is more likely that, because of their discipline and the rigors of the military chain of command, they will follow orders without knowing for what the orders are made. It is how, despite attempts to obfuscate the matter, there are senior commanders who live in the lap of luxury while servicemen and women live in bare-bones barracks.

We are not children any more. Something profound is happening in Kenya and the KDF are part of that profound change. Whether history will judge its role as that of a villain or hero depends entirely on how honest we are about our defence forces and how they are commanded. So far we have been hashtagged into silence by vested interests about what the AMISOM deployment means, to the core discipline of our defence forces and the wallets of the commanders, whether at Defence HQ or in theatre.

I mourn with the families of our fallen fighting men and women. But let us not be carried away: al Shabaab is not a threat to our freedom, or our existence. Ours is not an apocalyptic war to end all wars with al Shabaab. That is the rhetoric of the mad men in the United States and the radical madrassas of Afghanistan and Iraq. Our towns and cities are at risk, for sure, but al Shabaab will not  destroy Kenya. That day will never come so long as we are a democratic republic, where the Constitution is our lode stone and the freedoms that we enjoy because of the Constitution are protected by one and all. We don't need to militarise our freedom; we never did.

So, enough with the bullshit.