Written by West FM 2012-05-23 22:12:00 Read 1109 Times

On 23/05/2012 Wananchi at Wamuini in Kiminini Division in Saboti Constituency, Trans Nzoia County lynched four young men.  The persons were suspected to have been involved in the death of a young man killed on 19/05/2012 when he responded to a distress call of his father.  The four lynched were allegedly busted by a witch doctor and they started acting funnily culminating in their behaving like cows grazing grass.

As the suspects were set upon by the public and lynched journalistic, photographic evidence shows an Administration Police Officer in full uniform among the spectators.  Yes, the scenarios at Wamuini, Kiminini took place in broad daylight in Kenya that ushered in a new Constitution in 2010.  That Constitution at Article 26 guarantees every citizen the right to life.  And the Constitution further stipulates that a person shall not be deprived of life intentionally except to the extent authorized by the Constitution or other written law.  The law only permits one to be sentenced to death after a trial in a Court of Law and with the avenue of exhaustion of the right to appeal to the Highest Court in the land before such a sentence of death is executed.

The lynching of the four at Wamuini, Kiminini is a grim reminder to all that yes as a country we are a long way from being a Nation that respects the rule of law. Those who mouth Vision 2030 need to be told that without the Rule of Law any vision is an illusion.

The public are now throughout Western Province and North Rift resorting to witchdoctors to bust criminals and lynching those they decide are criminals plainly because the law enforcement agencies in the region have failed in their Constitutional obligations to maintain law and order.  The public are now drifting to the brink of anarchy if they have to dispense instant mob justice on suspects.  The public are however persuaded that the police are unable to handle their security issues and consequently they have to take it in their own hands.  The tragedy is that there is no knowing when innocent people will also fall victim to mob justice.  Mob rule is just the other spectrum, the opposite of the impunity by those who have been entrusted with the Institutions of the State- the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary to provide civilized governance but turn them upside for personal glory.  It is the frustrated citizens impunity.

And the elected leaders of Western Province and North Rift have equally failed to agitate for the radical shake up and reconfiguration of the law enforcement agencies in the region so that they discharge their Constitutional mandate to protect and guarantee security to the residents.  And as the politicians yell and scream all over Kenya to be elected for this or that elective office or why this or that party is the best , the electorate, the citizens of the region now live in mortal fear of criminals walking into their homesteads at night and killing them, maiming them, raping them, stealing their property, terrorizing them and the said criminals having no fear of the law enforcement agencies nabbing them.

The rule of law is the bedrock of any civilized democratic society.  The ordinary Kenyan citizen of Western Province and North Rift is entitled Constitutionally to peace, tranquility, security, law and order and to live without fear of criminal terror.  The lynching of the four in Kiminini was in reaction to the death of an innocent young man killed by thugs.  The public were reacting in their own way to even scores with criminals.  They were revenging the senseless killing of a young man.  The murder of the innocent young man that precipitated the lynching of the four suspects and lynching itself are all criminal acts and the blame lies squarely on the shoulders of the law enforcement agencies.

The people of Western Province and North Rift must as they head to the next general election put on top of the list of issues that they will use to evaluate those who deserve to be leaders of Kenya from the President to the County Representative and Councillor not forget that they need leaders who can guarantee them law, order, security, safety, in their homes, their farms, their businesses and anywhere in the region and the country.  Bad governance is a direct product of mediocre leadership.  The opportunity to put in place leadership that guarantees the people of the region security, peace, tranquility, law, order, safety, transformation of their socio-economic lives is on the horizons.   Will the people seize it or they will re-cycle the same failures that have put them in the hole where we are now with criminal gangs terrorizing us day and night? Time will tell.

The people must elect leaders who will translate Constitutional rights from theory into reality.  The right to security in the region is one right that is now plainly theoretical and not concrete.  The Constitution is being desecrated by the breakdown of law and order under the watch or accomplice of the law enforcement agencies.

WEST FM EDITORIAL©2012

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