If the Kenyan police don’t clean up their act for next Monday’s protests, tourists should pull out.
Yesterday’s police brutality in Kenya is unacceptable. Property can be protected and citizens safeguarded without beating to death someone who has fallen helplessly onto the street. It’s a despicable, cancerous mentality.
The police action yesterday was worse than in Ferguson or Baltimore or anywhere in the U.S. It reminds me of the late sixties during the anti-Vietnam War and Civil Rights’ demonstrations.
According to Kenya’s respected religious leaders a “volatile political environment” now threatens to undo the country.
Societies go through these difficult times. I’m very proud of having participated in the protests of the sixties and the result of those protests makes me even prouder and made my country stronger. I wish the Kenyan protesters well.
But now as then, in Kenya as worldwide, police action must be kept just and measured.
Kenya’s main opposition party, Cord, announced some time ago that every Monday until the August-2017 national elections, it would stage a demonstration outside the Nairobi downtown offices of the IEBC, the government entity that oversees elections. Cord opposes the current commissioners who it claims are biased against them.
Until the last several weeks these marches attracted hardly a few dozen people. They grew with the police action that clobbered them to a pulp and choked the city with tear gas.
Political leaders made an absolutely wrong decision to meet these rather benign protests with such force. Only now – possibly too late – are the leaders acknowledging negotiations over the IEBC should begin.
But riots are popping up all over the country now: in Kisumu, in the Kibera slum … even shutting down Nairobi university over an issue as pitiful as whether the students should be allowed to cook in their dorms.
Seemingly random police gunfire even broke a window in the government run coffee exchange office.
Yesterday the Nairobi mayor demanded the prosecution of police caught acting mercilessly brutal on hundreds of cameras and phones.
It’s too late to return to the simple issues that triggered all of these demonstrations. The central issue now is police brutality.
Good politicians and astute public leaders don’t allow issues to fester like this. Kenyan leaders did, and they’re now boxing themselves into a situation of relying more and more on the police.
Most of Kenya’s leaders are old, perhaps too old and arthritic to act with the deliberation and speed now needed to restrain the police.
If they don’t, the situation will spiral out of control. No amount of new police violence will stop it.
Oh shut up !! Kenya is an epic country full of wonderful people
Dear Jim,
Greetings from MagicalKenya!
We have read with a lot of concern your call for tourists to pull out of Kenya in your blog referenced below. This is further to the recent incidences in Kenya and would like to share our position on the status.
For information and clarifications on the situation in Kenya, please feel free to refer to the attached. Feel free to post it on your blog. We are more than happy to engage with you in your future reporting in order to support with information on the status on the ground.
Look forward to your positive engagement, and let me know if you need any clarifications.
Regards,
Jacinta Nzioka, Acting CEO
Kenyan Tourist Board
attached statement follows:
May 18th 2016 17 00 (EAT)
STATEMENT ON KENYA’S OPPOSITION PARTY’S CALL FOR ELECTORAL REFORMS
The Kenya Tourism Board (KTB) wishes to make reference to various incidents that
took place in Nairobi on Monday 9th & Monday 16th May, 2016 in relation to the above subject. The official opposition political party, the Coalition for Reform and Democracy (CORD), as part of its watchdog role to the Government, is pressing for key reforms in the Independent Electoral Boundaries Commission (IEBC), the agency mandated to oversee the Kenyan election process.
The party officials led by its Principals, Hon Raila Odinga, Hon Kalonzo Musyoka and Hon Moses Wetangula have on the above two dates mobilized their supporters for peaceful demonstrations outside the Nairobi offices of the IEBC. This disrupted activities in the usually busy streets that bounder the University of Nairobi main campus.
The Government, in its efforts to restore order, deployed anti-riot police to disperse the crowds gathered. The incidents come after various other conflicts arising from the usual complaints that heighten during election years in most countries. The KTB supports the rule of law and calls for restraint on all sides. It is important to note that the Government has continually extended an open invitation to Kenya’s opposition political party for discussions and contributions to all matters of governance that affect the Kenyan citizens. The democratic space in Kenya is commendable and indeed the Government appreciates the gains that have come with it and would not jeopardize the same. Key is
the devolved system of Government that has enhanced development particularly in the rural areas.
The IEBC which is at the centre of these demonstrations is currently holding discussions with Parliament as part of the Government’s efforts to avert any further public outcry through demonstrations or otherwise. The Government has expressed its commitment to finding lasting solutions, through dialogue, to the concerns raised in relation to the IEBC so as to further build the nations confidence in the electoral body.
Over the last few years Kenya has made several gains as evidenced by the various
high profile visits and events that have taken place in Nairobi. In 2015, Nairobi was the host City to the Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) held in Nairobi in July and attended by US President Barack Obama, the visit by Pope Francis in November, and the 10th edition of the Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in December. In the next 3 months of 2016, Kenya will host the United Nations Environmental Assembly (UNEA), the United Nations Conference on Trade & Development (UNCTAD) and Tokyo International Conference on Africa s Development (TICAD). These meetings that will see thousands of delegates converge in Nairobi are not only a show of confidence in Kenya by the international community but are an endorsement of a Country brand that is on the rise.
Dear Mrs. Nzioka,
Thank you very much for your response to my blog, “Kenyan Crossroads.” I have published your response and statement in full under the blog.
The central issue remains the over reaction by the police. Let’s see what next Monday brings.
Regards,
Jim Heck