Nation columnist Gitau Warigi still lives in a Kenya that has been overtaken by events.
In his article on that Mt. Kenya rag (Nation Newspaper) he dismisses the government as a weak entity that couldn’t ‘contain’ Mombasa Governor Ali Hassan Joho.
According to Warigi, once the government had threatened to take Joho’s firearms, they ought to have done it by all means. Their failure to do so showed they are weak and helpless. Essentially, Warigi is castigating the government for coming back to its senses and realizing there is a rule of law somewhere. To him, once the government has shown its poisonous fangs, it should bite.
He says he misses the days of John Michuki (RIP). Well, Michuki is no more . The repressive state he attempted to create led to 2007/08 with a finality in 2010 that Kenya remains a rule of law nation, not some snake rattling ethnic fiat.
But the part that annoys most in Warigi’s article is the claim that Gov. Joho is “arrogant and egoistic”. Though fallacious, it is the same attitude we witnessed among national governmental officials who were engaged in this now futile attempt to take Joho’s gun by all means chiefly by branding him an ’emotional wreck’.
‘He is unfit’. ‘He is temperamental’. ‘He is arrogant’. ‘He can’t handle a firearm’. ‘Taking the firearms away from him is saving him from himself’. Et cetera.
We heard these statements repeated again and again throughout last week. The fearmongering failed. The scaremongering was defeated here on social media, by some of us who pointed out, and continue to point out, the shameless hypocrisy of Joho accusers. Warigi is the latest.
See, Gitau Warigi claims for himself a very high pedestal from where he determines who is arrogant and, or, egoistic.
Throughout the whole time national government functionaries were intimidating Gov. Joho, the Mombasa governor maintained his cool. In his demeanor and tone, the Mombasa Governor did not ooze the kind of hubris and empty threats that we witnessed on such characters as Nkaissery, Boinett, Marwa etc.
When Warigi claims Joho is ‘arrogant and egoistic’, without describing the attitude of these other public officials, he gives the impression that national government functionaries can say anything and do anything without being challenged. That’s how the media creates a lawless state.
People voted overwhelmingly for devolution so that ‘democracy idiots’ like Warigi – editing a newspaper that so valiantly defends the pettiness, cheapness, arbitrariness, fecklessness and emptiness of the Jubilee regime – never drown out critical voices opposing and exposing dictatorial tendencies of this regime. Uhuru regime has not turned full scale dictatorship because every moment it attempts to, it is reminded of the rule of law.
The rule of law is to a county what oxygen is to our bodies. Without the rule of law there is no country.
For kikuyu elites like Warigi, the rule of law doesn’t matter. It used to matter to them in the ’80s and ’90s. Because it was Moi suffocating it out.
When you read the chapter on devolution; among its objectives was respect for communities and their democratic choices. Warigi cannot understand how a mere Mombasa can stand up to Nairobi. How Joho can stand up to Uhurulings like Nkaissery and Marwa.
Warigi doesn’t even point out the fact that Joho’s steadfastness has led to the government constituting a critical board that determines how firearms are allocated to civilians in this country. What Warigi refers to as Joho’s ‘arrogance and egoism’ has led to the government following the rule of law.
Warigi’s thinking is the typical Mt Kenya elite thinking. They think this whole country is Mt Kenya mafia’s gift to the other 41 so that only the Mt Kenya mafia reserve the false privilege of arrogance and egoism.
Gitau Warigi must fall.
Leave a Reply