WHY I SUPPORT DAVID OCHAMI

senior Kenya Times editor Onyango Omollo and writer David Ochami were yesterday charged with publishing an alarming article. For those not familiar with the story, David Ochami published this article http://www.timesnews.co.ke/25sep05/nwsstory/opinion.htmlon the Kenya Times in which Mr. Omollo drew parallels on why coups often occur in Africa and gave backgrounds on the aborted coup in 1982 in Kenya, thus infuriating the authorities.
Mr. Omallo's title was "Coups in Africa do not occur out of nothing"


Let me begin by saying these; the Kenyan Goverment seems to be doing an excellent job at impeding free speech and its modus operandi is reminiscent of the notorious Kanu Regime. Mr. Ochami just as any other professional journalist did not call for a coup. He did not incite anyone to have a coup, as the last time I checked the impotent Kibaki regime was still in power. Now there are some who may say that he broke the Law by "publishing an article that was likely to cause fear and alarm to the public." Lets pretend for a minute that he indeed broke the law by publishing an article that was likey to cause fear and alarm to the public. So what? What if today I published an article in the Kenya Times and claimed that I had seen aliens land in "Patch" u know..Nairobi School. What if I continued my alarming article by suggesting that half of patch was infected by an alien disease that caused alarming symptoms like hydrophobia, losersystis and the horrible ballscratchitittis. would that be considered by the kenyan goverment as publishing an article the was "likely to cause fear and alarm to the public." Would I be arrested and taken to court by 10 detectives from the Kenya Police disservice?

In short, all I am saying is that this charges are bullshit and everyone knows it. Just because a law exists does not make it a just law. Furthermore, Kenyans including journalists are not under any kind of moral obligation to heed to UNJUST LAWS!

David Ochami expressed the frustration of many kenyans that the democratic process has failed in electing a corrupt free goverment. Mwai Kibaki the president of Kenya was elected on a platform of anti-corruption. It is obvious even to the most illiterate Kenyan that his goverment has FAILED. If we as Kenyan citizens cannot recall the president in an election, or if we cannot impeach the president, then the cancer has to be removed and cancers are not removed by a democratic process!

We ought to resist oppression and bigotry. The arrest of these two exceptional journalists is unacceptable and does not in any way convince me that the colonial master has left. He is alive and well, this time in a new skin colour.