Patriotism bends me like a reed

By PROF. GEORGE LUCHIRI WAJACKOYAH
Published January 16, 2010

As 2009 drew to a close, I embarked on several publicity drives, and with them came bitter-sweet lessons. But the big one is that Kenyans, by all accounts, are immensely patriotic, and contrary to the old belief that Kenya is an amalgamation of tribes, this nation is indeed a collection of Kenyans.

In the final quarter of last year, I had audio interviews with Dr. Henry Gombya of United Kingdom- based Ngoma Radio as well as Susan Kariuki and Sylvester Oluoch of East Africa in Focus (EAiF), USA office. The interviews were preceded by aggressive publicity campaigns by both media. That was their apparent undoing. The events that surrounded the interviews were anything but coincidental. As EAiF prepared to upload the podcast, it was hijacked for 12 straight hours; and had about 24 hours of partial jam, whereas Ngoma Radio suffered a five-day outage starting day of the interview. The teleconference could not even go through their official phone lines, so they conducted my interview via cell phone.

In the days following the interviews, I also noticed strange people trailing me. My suspicion was almost cemented when an erstwhile friend called and left me a message. Either by design, to intimidate me, or by accident, he did not end the call, and proceeded to address an audience he had around him with terse threats on my life. As a responsible citizen of the world, I reported the matter to authorities.

I am unbowed by merchants of death. Kenya is worth it.

Kenya needs a good economic blueprint, clearly separated and working arms of government, and a sound national security system – all of which I am committed to. I have deep interest in good resource initialization, especially human resources. We have great potential, and we can realize it by developing simple and workable policies, on gender equity and protection of minority groups, more so, for members of marginalized communities. The ongoing police reforms could lead to some gains in security, but, borrowing from my experience in the intelligence, the command of the police force must be separated, so that various police forces can focus on different areas. This has worked well in developed world, and I intend to implement an equally effective policing structure.

The huddles on my way are enormous, and are connected to the Dr. Robert Ouko murder.  Dr. Ouko  was a former minister for foreign affairs in former president Daniel Arap Moi’s government. I joined the Kenya security intelligence in 1986, hitherto an inspector of police. I then served at the provincial headquarters at Nyayo House where I mainly served hotels and airports, before taking a one-year French course at the Kenya Institute of Administration (KIA).

I was subsequently awarded a scholarship by the French government to study French at the University of Burundi. On my return, I was assigned to collect intelligence on the late Dr. Ouko’s killers at Nyati House. My duties included monitoring telephone conversations of key suspects. I was a blue-eyed boy of the intelligence family, until I refused to doctor the results, as it was evident that wired communications could not alter peoples’ voices. What I learnt during that time is what makes Kenyans of old political ways jittery about my candidacy.

Understandably, many politicians including some in the Diaspora have become restless. Reality is slowly downing on them. Kenyans are increasingly refusing to take clarion calls without questions, and a number of them are getting ruffled. In this great awakening, tribal leaders have nowhere to run. Time is up, and Kenyans have stopped weltering helplessly; people are rising up and picking up some of the finest weapons of civility – it is all in the Internet, which has made it ever so easy to run fact checks.

Mine is a resurrection of sorts; The Standard Newspaper once ran a story that “One James Wajackoyah, a man involved in Dr. Ouko’s investigation also died…” The same paper serialized and listed George Luchiri, as one of those Kenyans with fake degrees and facing deportation …” Later, the same paper carried a story on a California gubernatorial candidate, in the same story they referred to me as Prof. Wajackoyah. Clearly, this was journalistic impropriety – The writers should have known they were referring to one and the same person. The media too, has a role to play in this transition, by reporting accurately and verifying their sources.

Leadership of Kenya should embrace the rule of law, and uphold the constitution, which should harmonize relationships, gender equality and outlaw discrimination of any form. We need laws that guarantee property rights and the freedom to do business in any part of Kenya without losing sleep. Kenyans should tolerate one another’s views and be living examples of great possibilities.

The current threats on my life will not move me. I have been threatened and harassed many times before. Someone attacked me and broke my hand in Britain. My brushes with intolerant people are many. But just like a reed, I bend, but I do not break. Together we will fight for Kenya to the wire.

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