It is popularly considered ‘unpatriotic’ to criticize an ongoing war. Regrettably, I don’t have very nice words for the way Kenya has found itself fighting a terrorist group in Somalia. Get me right. At the onset, I must clarify that I don’t oppose the war itself. What leaves a lot to be desired is its handling by most of the statecraft. I elaborate.
Start with the commander in chief, the president of the republic of Kenya. President Kibaki did not find it important to address the nation as far as the war is concerned. I tried to rationalize this by arguing that this was strategic….the thinking that a ‘surprise’ invasion would give our troops an upper hand against the enemy. But with four weeks gone in to the incursion and still waiting, obviously it ain’t any strategy here.
President Kibaki has reaped greater political advantage from his ‘aloof’ style of doing business, much to the chagrin of Kenyans who had gotten used to the presidency as a fanciful institution. Think of the former president Daniel Arap Moi. Or even more colourful, the father of the nation, the burning spear, Jomo Kenyatta. For president Kibaki, politics always finds its level. (Physicists will talk of water finding its own level.) Raisezfare is a good modus operadi for the president.
Still, with Kenya going to war for the first time in half a century of our independent history, I find it difficult to accept this lack of bother on the part of the president. In some jurisdictions, this apathetic attitude would have been unforgivable. But I also submit that it would have been in the interest of the government to rally Kenyans around the flag at this moment in Kenya’s history.
It is difficult to point at any one issue that united Kenyans in the last decade as the war against al shabaab has done. Scholars argue that there occurs an increase in support of the government during wartime. This support sometimes is only for a short time. Approval ratings for former US president George Bush soared shortly after 9/11 and just before the 2003 invasion of Iraq. This is called the “rally round the flag syndrome”. A televised presidential address early into ‘operation linda nchi’ would have been good towards stoking the embers of our patriotism.
Patriotism is an asset that the government should seek at all means necessary. It is immaterial that the president may not bother our approval ratings any more considering that he is not going to seek reelection in next year’s polls. This war comes at a time when one of the leaders in this region has, according to the whistle blower website, wikileaks, discredited Kenya’s defense forces as a ‘career army’. It was important for Kenyans to derive the comfort of knowing that the military agencies are competent and rise up to the challenge.
The government should also know that wars that are too long tend to turn public opinion against the government. To refer again to President George Bush’s popularity ratings, we all know how voters threw his party out of congress in the 2006 midterm elections. By 2008, his party had lost control of the senate, House and presidency. In the aftermath of the war, Kenyans have had to cope with certain inconveniences including the regular checks by security agents all over including in the shopping malls. We shouldn’t forget the Kenyans who lost lives in retaliatory attacks like the one at Mwaura’s pub and the one at the busy OTC bus station. No one should take the forbearance of Kenyans for granted.
Without giving details, I must recognize the diplomatic acumen portrayed by the minister for foreign affairs, Moses Wetang’ula in the course of the war. Kenyans may never get to know how many diplomatic conquests the minister has won for Kenya in a space of a few weeks. A story for another day.
It doesn’t escape a keen observer that the action by the government to rally troops across the boarder comes rather late in the day. Five years ago when Ethiopia attacked the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) in Somalia, Kenya increased the surveillance over her vast border with Somalia. This was enforced only for a short time before we relaxed back to business as usual. Of late, that border has been as porous as it can get. Related to this, it is shocking to learn the ease with which Kenya’s identification documents are obtained in the black and sometimes not-so-black markets.
In 2010, one media house conducted a chilling investigative report into the al shabaab recruitment in Kenya. According to the report, al shabaab has even infiltrated our defense forces. For the first time, that report also showed that al shabaab had targeted Kenyan youth not even of Somali ethnicity for recruitment. With this understanding, we must lament the indifference with which security issues are handled with in this country.
But even more important is the development agenda for Northern Kenya. Terrorism will always thrive on the perceived anger of a certain portion of the population over the government’s neglect of the said population. The development potential of the north must be tapped and be used to develop the prospects of the inhabitants. The road network in that part of the world, for instance, must be upgraded as a matter of urgency. Other projects that hold promise include desert tourism, wind and solar energy farms and irrigation schemes. Simply put, the problem of northern Kenya is underdevelopment.
(Sammy Frank is a student of international studies at the University of Nairobi. He blogs at www.sammyfrank.blogspot.com)
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