Many years ago, as Nairobi Central OCPD, Japheth Koome would routinely be captured by media cameras shielding rioting university students from being clobbered senseless by his police juniors.
Koome subsequently became the face of what was considered nascent police reforms, as well as a rare speck of intellectual presence within the force. As expected, he was soon a media sensation, manifesting what Kenyans thought would have been the new face of public order enforcement.
Years later, in 2022, when the Kenya Kwanza administration nominated him as Inspector General of Police to replace the colourless Hilary Mutyambai, those of us who had seen Koome in action nursed hopes of the police service under him showing greater responsibility and tolerance in dealing with the public, especially when handling public demonstrations of the variety we saw in the past two weeks.
Instead, we were thoroughly disappointed.
Truth be said, the Azimio demos had become some sort of street carnivals, with supporters happily dancing to a wide variety of music as they escorted their leaders through Nairobi estates. Violence in each case erupted only when police blocked the processions.
The enthusiasm with which the law enforcers unleashed teargas and violence on peaceful protesters not only showed the shocking wastage of resources without provocation, but for anyone watching keenly, was testament to a growing sense of indiscipline within the service.
By the second day of demos, the invasion of a farm in Ruiru belonging to the family of founding President Jomo Kenyatta, presented a new face of law enforcement’s evident complicity. Almost predictably, the police turned a blind eye to the destruction all day, and parts of the night.
IG Koome, the old face of police reforms, was left mumbling things that confirmed he was either not the one running the show, or there were instructions from higher up to ignore the invasion. Whatever the case, the police under Koome unfortunately appeared to have returned to the 1980s era of “orders from above”. Or maybe it just never left!
The police may not know a new constitution was promulgated in 2010. Article 37 of that Constitution states that: “every person has the right, peaceably and unarmed, to assemble, to demonstrate, to picket and to present petitions to public authorities”.
Article 244(c) further states that the National Police Service shall “comply with constitutional standards of human rights and fundamental freedoms”.
Without sticking to these constitutional ideals, a police service would be nothing more than a militia serving partisan interests. And this is a conversation that must go beyond the shaky truce reached between President William Ruto and Azimio boss Raila Odinga. Up until the demos called by the Azimio coalition this month, there had been relative political stability and a total absence of street protests, largely due to the handshake between Raila and President Uhuru Kenyatta in March 2018.
In that serene environment, we never had a chance to see if the police had improved its image over time. It would be easy to explain one or two cases as bad apples within the service. But cases of police attacks on unarmed demonstrators and journalists were widespread across the towns where demos took place.
To add salt to injury, police brought heavy hardware and weaponry to these confrontations with civilians at a time when insecurity in the North Rift is on the headlines and bandits have been putting the police on the back foot.
It is disrespectful to the taxpayer to have all the guns and armour lining up the streets of Nairobi yet many families in the Kerio Valley are out of their homes following perennial banditry. Interesting priorities.
In responding to President Ruto’s request to halt demos and pursue a bipartisan parliamentary dialogue process, Azimio has presented its own set of demands, among them that the process be people-driven rather than a parliamentary one, and that the cost of living be an urgent matter for deliberation. Hopefully, later edits will include police reforms, especially given that they have reserved the right to return to the streets should talks collapse.
Raila has often been accused of not doing enough on the issue of electoral and IEBC reforms from their handshake with President Kenyatta. One hopes that a critical matter such as the police one will find an important place on the table this time. Let peace not lull anyone into forgetting that a rogue police force is undesirable no matter what time in the future they come out again.
Talking of the proposed dialogue, it was interesting to see how quickly the question of sincerity emerged. In my view, the biggest threat to any talks between Azimio and Kenya Kwanza is the Mt Kenya bloc in UDA, whose most visible faces are DP Rigathi Gachagua and National Assembly Majority leader Kimani Ichung’wah.
Clearly, their feeling is that any rapprochement between Ruto and Raila would lead to the DP’s wing becoming peripheral player in power politics. For Kenya Kwanza, the problem will be how to find moderates to help navigate a bipartisan process, given how Ruto’s brand of politics as Uhuru’s deputy helped create a hardliners’ paradise around him.
For Azimio, the problem is markedly different. Being such a diverse coalition, finding both moderates and hardliners isn’t difficult. The problem, it occurs to me, is how they will come up with an effective team to both stand strong against being bulldozed by the government machinery on the opposite negotiation team, as well as deliver on the aspirations of their supporters.
Much has been said about the chaos and confusion within the Raila campaign, with blame games over who let the ball drop ahead of the August elections. With this background, it would be imperative for the Azimio coalition to take a new approach and remove the usual suspects for a more vibrant team.
Aside from his co-principals Martha Karua, Kalonzo Musyoka, Eugene Wamalwa and Jeremiah Kioni, I believe it is time for Raila to bring a younger, more vibrant team into the negotiations, especially the younger faces within the legislature.
He has a huge pool to pick from, among them senators Edwin Sifuna (Nairobi), Enock Wambua (Kitui), Godfrey Osotsi (Vihiga) and Eddy Oketch (Migori), alongside MPs Millie Odhiambo, Fatuma Mohamed, Babu Owino, Jack Wamboka and Nabii Nabwera, among others.
Be that as it may, the call for dialogue should be a lesson to hardliners within the lower cadres of both coalitions. Kenya Kwanza ones have been especially left with huge egg on the face.
A Kenyan politician typically doesn’t know when a matter is above his paygrade. The Uhuru-Raila deal should have taught them, but lessons are also not their thing. At the time of writing this, hawks from the Kenya Kwanza coalition were still declaring that there would never be a handshake, as if they would know what goes on behind the scenes.
The more lasting lesson,however, should have been that those who thrive in divisions may soon run out of luck, if Raila and Ruto decide to hold sincere talks that result in something remarkable.
Indeed, the atmosphere is already so poisoned that only sincere talks can salvage the country now.
