You are responsible for your own safety not the goverment

Like many of the readers of this blog, I am privileged to have been born and raised in Kenya. I grew up in BuruBuru; a housing estate that comprised of hundreds of town homes compacted in a diminutive area. I remember habits that the residents formed that were birthed out of safety concerns. I remember self-imposed curfews, limiting the amount of cash one would have in their pockets, avoiding areas with poor visibility, Oh did I mention the heavily fortified homes. I am talking about thick rock walls with pieces of broken glass cemented on top and steel gates with heavy chains and padlocks on them. I remember our house. We had an interior steel door, followed by the regular wooden door, then another exterior steel door all with multiple locking mechanisms. On top of that we had two guard dogs Bosco and Ricky. Our court (block) was also converted into a gated community complete with a steel gate and a security guard. This was not an isolated scenario, countless neighborhoods in Nairobi and indeed the country took extraordinary measures to protect themselves from gun wielding, blood thirsty thugs who held human life and dignity with the same value as a roach on the street. Then there was the Police. A miserable bunch of poorly trained, poorly paid and poorly equipped men and women who were entrusted to protect the lives of Kenyans citizens and visitors. The general atmosphere then and now is one of acute fear and hopelessness in the face of a resilient enemy.
Unfortunately crime does not discriminate. Victims of violent crimes such as car jackings, robberies, rape, homicide, burglary, muggings have ranged from all sectors of society, rich and poor, old and young, the affluent and the irrelevant. Government ministers, affluent members of Parliament and Judges alike have been victims of the escalating crime in Kenya. So what happens when you have a crisis that has gripped the country by its balls? Let me encapsulate it this way, if you are a Kenyan, you whine and complain. Even the legislative and executive branch of government whine about the escalating crime. To add insult to injury, it is said and has been proved, that components of Kenya’s Police Forces have been involved in not only arming criminals with their government issued weapons but have themselves participated in high profile crimes. So you have a state of affairs where the protector of life and property has become the perpetrator. Not just your regular Bonnie and Clyde bank robber but an individual who has received paramilitary training, preying on innocent civilians who have had no defensive tactics training at all let alone combat training.
The Republic of Kenya having adopted the British Constitution, has a general ban on civilian owned firearms. Regular citizens have to go through a bureaucratic system to get licensed to carry a firearm in order to protect themselves and their families. The ordinary citizen cannot afford the application fees, which are not a guarantee that one will be able to get approved for a license in any case. Most Kenyans hate guns anyway and see guns as the enemy. But as the NRA of which I am a proud member always says, guns don’t kill people; people kill people. As a matter of fact the proliferation of illegal weapons from neighboring war torn countries like Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan and the like, have led to illegal and sophisticated firearms ending up in the hands of criminals who have turned these weapons against innocent civilians. There are horror stories from every part of Kenya about women and children being raped at gunpoint in full view of their families. Children all over Kenya have been orphaned at the pull of a trigger, Women have been left scared for life after being raped and their husbands who are the main bread winners murdered in cold blood. I do not argue the fact that the government has a role to play in protecting its citizens. In fact the highest burden placed on every government is the burden of protection of Sovereignty. Sovereignty begins in the common household. Uncontrolled crime threatens the very sovereignty of Kenya and the Kenyan government has the paramount duty to protect this sovereignty at every cost. However, having said that, the individual Kenyan citizen has the responsibility over his own safety and that of his family. When kinyanjui, Ojwang and Kipkorir knock on your door with AK-47 rifles and 9mm Berettas demanding property and threatening to rape you wife and daughters, are you going to sit back and wait for NARC to come to your rescue or are you going to fight with everything you’ve got? As a matter of fact, how well equipped is the common Kenyan home in aggressively protecting its own? Well lets see, a couple of kitchen knives, maybe a machete, a few pots and pans..you can see the problem here. Despite the high walls and the steel gates and the gated communities, Kenyan homes remain vulnerable to murder and despicable violence unless Kenyan act. The measures in place are defensive measures; Kenyans need to take assertive, proactive measures to protect the most fundamental of rights-the right to live.
I don’t see people demonstrating on the street against the government in protest of a poorly paid, poorly equipped, poorly trained, and poorly staffed Police Force? I don’t see men who are the primary defenders of their homes, stripping their clothes in Uhuru Park as Women did when they protested the illegal detention of political prisoners? I don’t see citizens arresting corrupt Police Officers? This is what I see people. I see Members of Parliament allocating a significant portion of the national Budget to extravagant salaries and benefits, Government ministers driving expensive, exotic, gas guzzling sport utility vehicles, living in Government funded Mansions while Police Officers live in structures that no living creature not even a dog should be a allowed to occupy. To be a Police inspector in the "elite" Kenya Police Force, one has to hold a Bachelor’s degree or earn promotion after many years of service yet State house dogs are better fed than Police inspectors in the Kenyan Police Force.
However Kenyans are quick to blame and pour scalding, hateful venom on Police officers for "not doing their jobs". With what equipment are the Police supposed to protect Kenyans? A G3 rifle and an aging inventory of revolvers when the average criminal is armed with automatic weapons? On February 28th 1997 an incident in Los Angeles revolutionized law enforcement procedures including what kind of weapons the law enforcement carried. A gang of bank robbers systematically shot innocent civilians and briefly seemed to overpower Police Officers trying to end their crime melee. Unfortunately the suspects were armed with sophisticated sub machine guns, M16 and AR15 rifles while the LAPD officers were armed with 9mm berettas. In the end the suspects where killed when back up units arrived with equally powered weaponry.Tactically the police were at a disadvantaged. Many of Kenya's Police officer many of them with families of their own have paid the ultimate price with their lives. The LA shootout has been used as a case study by agencies in the US. Police departments all over the United States updated their inventory of weapons and revised their training. Departments all over the United States have recruited and put in place measures to retain highly qualified Officers. All this done so that history does not repeat itself. A brief news report can be read at http://www.cnn.com/US/9702/28/shootout.update/
If Kenyans do not take significant proactive measures to protect their own country from crime, then we lose our independence all over again. A new breed of colonialists have taken over our country. But this time, they look like us, talk like us and we know who they are. Our sovereignty is at stake, our quality of life is at stake, our economy is at stake, our children are at stake, your life is at stake. You are responsible for electing greedy leaders apt on their own selfish interests. You are responsible for looking the other way when Members of Parliament-your won representatives, award themselves ridiculous salaries and perks.
In conclusion, there needs to be a momentous amalgamation of our people to combat crime and a mêlée to take control of our own safety and sovereignty. Leaders need to be held accountable by the people who elected them and we need to treat our men and women in blue with more dignity and respect. If not we might as well invite the British to colonize Kenya all over again; the British may be a better master than the Wanugus of Kenya.