THE KENYAN MEDIA IS EXAGGERATING THE BARAZA STORY

By Fwamba NC Fwamba Something I have noted over a period of time is that there is an inherent wedge that gets easily exposed whenever there is a conflict between groups and individuals who are perceived to belong to different economic classes. Given this trend, it’s no surprising that the majority are trying to support or justify the actions of the guard and have therefore deliberately or unconsciously ignored rationality, fairness or critical analysis on the other side of the story. The mob justice mentality in Kenya has taken root whenever such kind of conflict arises. The Kenyan government has three arms the legislature, the judiciary and the executive. Under the aforementioned structure president Kibaki heads the executive deputized by Kalonzo Musyoka while the legislature is headed by the speaker Kenneth Marende deputized by Farah Maalim .Nancy Baraza who deputizes Dr. Willy Mutunga’s is the deputy president of the judiciary. I will not necessarily defend Nancy as a person but the office of the deputy chief justice which deserves due respect .The reform process should not mean that we start treating our institutions with contempt. Given her status it’s important to note that the security guard was herself a security threat to the deputy chief justice. If it were Kalonzo’s security, I doubt whether they would have cared whether the said guard recognized Kalonzo or not. I personally don’t find anything wrong if Nancy advised the guard to know people. The way the media is reacting looks like some unknown mama mboga (nothing ill intended to mama mbogas) raided the village market and refused to be frisked. On this I think the media is ignoring many facts. I have no problem if any VIP chooses to be frisked and walk everywhere freely the way former Burkina Faso leader captain Thomas Sankara used to do; I however think that should be a personal choice so that in case of anything the leader in question takes responsibility of all the potential threats that come with such a lifestyle. That kind of lifestyle earned Thomas Sankara early death when he was assassinated at the age of 37 .In normal circumstances, the guard would have been arrested and be charged with breaching and threatening the security of the deputy chief justice. Security of prominent people should never be compromised and Nancy Baraza’s is no exception given the position she occupies. In history many prominent people have been brought to harm’s way due to lapse in security. The most significant scenario is where Dr Martin Luther King junior was stabbed by a woman who appeared very innocent. The incident occurred in 1958 in Harlem new York .It was on September 20th 1958 when Dr. king was on a promotional tour of his book Strive Toward Freedom.. During a book signing at a department store in New York City, a well-dressed woman approached and asked him if he was Martin Luther King, Jr. When King replied in the affirmative, she said, "I've been looking for you for five years," then stabbed him in the chest with a steel letter opener. since Dr. King was a prominent and a very popular civil rights leader in America, he proudly answered in the affirmative because he must have thought that the woman was one of his supporters but that almost cost him his life for the woman instead stabbed him cutting his aorta; something that was so fatal that doctors said that had Dr .King sneezed at that time, he would have died instantly. On 11 September 2003, former Swedish minister Anna Lindh died as a result of a knife attack in a Stockholm shopping mall the previous day. On the 10th September 2003 at about 4 pm, she had been attacked while shopping in the ladies' department at the Nordiska Kompaniet department store in central Stockholm. She was stabbed in the chest, stomach and arms. At the time of the attack, Lindh was not protected by bodyguards from the Swedish Security Service, a controversial predicament similar to that of former Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme in 1986. Following the assault she was rushed to the Karolinska hospital where she underwent surgery for over nine hours, receiving blood transfusions continuously during the surgery. She reportedly suffered serious internal bleeding, her liver was seriously damaged, and her medical situation remained critical leading to her death at the age of 46. The assassination of India’s sixth prime minister on 21st of May 1991 can be related to the same context of poor security arrangements for the VIPs. During the campaigns, a woman who was later identified as a Tamil Tigers suicide attacker detonated a 700 gram RDX after getting too close to the prime minister and bending down towards his feet; a sign of respect among the Indians. On 4th November 1995,Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by a hard-line Jewish university student Yigal Amir as a result laxity in his security arrangements a few days after the historical handshake with the leader of the Palestinian liberation organization(PLO)’s leader YassIr Arafat at the white house. After A rally, Rabin walked down the city hall steps towards the open door of his car, at which time Amir fired three shots towards Rabin with a Beretta 84F.380 ACP calibre semi automatic pistol. He was immediately subdued by Rabin's bodyguards and arrested with the murder weapon. He also shot and slightly wounded Yoram Rubin, a security guard, with a third bullet that missed Rabin. In January 2011, Arizona’s chief federal judge john roll was killed in an incident where Congresswoman Gabby Gifford’s was shot. The two were shot while on kind of a meet the people tour. In Kenya, we have a culture of looking at incidents of that nature in a simple way, but the security of a senior government official can not be compromised at the expense of making some people happy. We can not afford the risk as a country. The news that the lady is now demanding obscene amounts of cash shows that she had a well calculated plan in advance and even her argument that she didn’t know who Nancy was now appears questionable. She is an extortionist par excellence. It’s not hard to conclude that the whole scheme was pre planned given that the deputy chief justice says she has been shopping at the same place for a number of years. What should be investigated is whether the security guard was acting alone or in cahoots with other people whose mission should as well be established. Fwamba NC Fwamba is the leader of Kenya Young Voters Alliance. fwambancfwamba.wordpress.com fwambanc@gmail.com +254786779445