Vote Kenya; vote in honour of our fallen men and women in uniform

Honour and statesmanship

Saturday 10th November 2012, young Kenyan policemen are pursuing cattle raiders in Baragoi, Samburu County. Most of them, fresh recruits from the Kiganjo Police Training College, a walking distance from my birthplace. Family and friends had gathered at the college in August this year for the colourful passing out ceremony. Most of these young soldiers, the hope of their families. Aged 20-26 years of age. In the prime of their youth. Most of them glad that they can finally make ends meet. All of them ready to serve this great nation. Upon the conclusion of the ceremony, they are put in police tracks and transported to their first areas of posting. Most of them en-route to North Eastern Province. Still, they smile as they bid their relatives goodbye. “We are out to serve this country”, they say. “We shall give our all”, they promise. What 40 or so of them do not realise is that their all, means their lives.

Two years ago, my mother called me, shaken and out of breath, “Jose had been shot” she said. Jose has been what?! How? Where? By who?..by “bandits in Pokot” she said. “They were way-laid and attacked. Most of them did not even fire back. But God is great, he has been airlifted to the Kenyatta National Hospital and is stable. Call Shiku and see how she is doing”.

Jose is like a brother to us. Shiku is like a sister to me. We love each other, grown up together and shared the joys of childhood. Between that phone call and the hospital was a nightmare. He was lucky, we were lucky, the gun shots, four on both thighs did not hit any bones. The surgery was successful and within two months, Jose was back to work, serving this country.

I called him last night, to see whether he had been sent as reinforcement to Baragoi. He wasn't sure whether they would send him out. “I am worried”, I say to him. I pray they will not send him out there. I do not want to live with the nightmare of what could befall him. But in his characteristic soldier self, he says, “but they need reinforcement, if they send me out, I shall go”. I pause and think, our soldiers are really passionate about this country, but are we passionate about them? Do we care to think what their needs could be or what difficulties they encounter in their line of duty. People I love are in the forces. I am in the forces as my heart and family are in it. Therefore, I worry when we lose 40 soldiers to armed militia. Militia more equipped than our own security forces. I want to scream when the police commissioner admits to a tactical mistake. I shall tell you what a tactical mistake does, it renders wives husband-less, parents childless, siblings brother-less. It paralyses this nation in terms of security.

Shall we sit and watch as our leaders commit these policy murders. When the highest percentage of our budget goes to defence and security, yet our soldiers are ill equipped to respond to a line of fire when ambushed trying to reinforce law and order? We send inexperienced policemen to deal with dangerous criminals and do not rethink this policy decision when more than once, a quarter of fresh recruits die within their first years of service in hardship areas.

Do we think ourselves helpless in the face of such policy blunders? Indeed we are not. We are armed with information and experience and we can vote in honour of our fallen heroes. We can vote to restore security. We can vote to save lives. We can vote for people with clear and practical policies about the things that this country truly needs; security and peace, rule of law, food, health-care and creation of employment.

Vote Kenya; vote in honour of our fallen heroes in Somalia, in Tana River, in Baragoi and anywhere else in this great Republic. Watch-out for people who have amorphous promises that will yield nothing but five wasted years, wasted lives and a wasted republic. When we vote without policy consideration, we commit our children to starvation, we send our soldiers to pits and valleys of death, we send our doctors to private practice at the expense of public healthcare, we dissipate peace and all forms of cohesion, we sacrifice talent and growth at the alter of unemployment. If for nothing else, vote in honour of our men and women in uniform. Those that are out in the wild defending our borders and keeping us safe. Keep them safe on March 4th 2013. It will be an act of honour and statesmanship.