Punish perpetrators of mini-elections violence

What you need to know:

  • Violence, intimidation and bribery have become the currencies in politics.
  • This is primitive, criminal and distressing, and must be stopped.

The chaos witnessed at the recent by-elections across the country gravely demonstrated that the country is headed in the wrong direction. Violence, intimidation and bribery have become the currencies in politics. This is primitive, criminal and distressing, and must be stopped. And the only way to deal with that is to seize the perpetrators, prosecute and punish them accordingly.

Following the public uproar over the mayhem, government agencies have responded. Some of the masterminds of the mayhem have been arrested and are awaiting trial. The National Cohesion and Integrity Commission (NCIC) has summoned at least 10 politicians for questioning over the chaos. Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i has directed the withdrawal of licences for politicians whose guns were used to create the turmoil.

These initial actions are encouraging. But they are not enough. Better still, they are not definitive. Past experience has shown that government agencies swing into action when such notorious things happen, with pledges of cracking the whip, but nothing much happens.

Election violence

NCIC, for example, has proved terribly ineffective in sanctioning hate speech vendors. Courts take an inordinately long time to prosecute and punish the culprits. At any rate, penalties are mild. The net result is that merchants of chaos never get to feel the heat. They never suffer pain, which fact emboldens them to continue with their nefarious designs.

We demand tough and concrete action; failure to do so exposes the country to deadly violence. The country is likely to go for a national referendum mid-year; while the next General Election is scheduled for August next year. If the latest scenario is not contained, it will replicate itself many times at the forthcoming elections. Nothing can be disastrous.

The government and security agencies must end this cyclic election violence.