AJUOK: Brazen attack on Senator Osotsi is a red line crossed

Vihiga Senator Godfrey Osotsi is one of the most common faces in Kisumu City. Once in a while, he even stops over at the dreaded Kondele roundabout for political banter with residents, when not joining them to watch football in town.

Over the years, he has practically become a mini-resident of the lakeside city. Besides, many folks from his Vihiga backyard live and work in Kisumu, helped by the fact that Vihiga county is just up the road from Kisumu City.

The senator is also one of the friendliest leaders in the current Legislature. Grudges may abound in our politics, but you wouldn’t expect Osotsi to be a target of vicious attacks of the nature that happened to him at a popular coffee shop in Kisumu on Wednesday, April 8, in broad daylight.

In fact, in pragmatic politics, opponents would look beyond Senator Osotsi’s formation and see him as a potential bride-building avenue for negotiations in future, because he is the most approachable member of the Linda Mwananchi brigade. But in Kenyan politics, strategy is alien to most parties.

My first reaction as I watched the CCTV footage from the incident in Kisumu was to wonder just how I had lived long enough to see a sitting legislator, from the Senate of the Republic of Kenya, no less, kicked on the floor like a sandbag.

Even in failed states, there is a level of respect and space accorded sitting elected legislator. “Mheshimiwa” is not a title that anyone takes for granted or holds lightly.

There is something chilling about the footage; the casual confidence of the perpetrators of the violence. You don’t need many lessons on violence or spectacularly big eyes to see that the goons in question were confident that they carried with them some sort of safety net; an assurance that nothing would happen to them after their actions. The only authority from which anyone can comfortably draw such an assurance is the government.

Incidentally, news of the attack hadn’t spread enough when pro-regime bloggers went to the online space churning out the narrative that the attack had something to do with a love triangle.

The lack of creativity in this country, and the sheer prevalence of fools, can be rather discomforting. Honestly, the line about love triangles and Viagra, whenever adversity befalls a prominent personality, is too tired and has run its very shallow course.

At any rate, the thugs who had attacked the senator were soon easy to identify. Seeming to have lived an exhibitionist lifestyle, their pictures and videos soon popped up everywhere in blogosphere, posing with important personalities.

To sustain the love triangle narrative would have meant that regime bloggers therefore reveal how the state officers shown in the pictures came into play. It is quite difficult for political thugs to double up as relationship fixers, anywhere on this planet.

Political thugs have become common in Kisumu lately. And in my view, they point to a lack of “political self esteem”. What I deduce from recent actions where goons have been used to try and silence the opposition is that someone within the broad-based political network is afraid of the reality that may be revealed if the opposition actually storms the lakeside city and conducts a successful rally.

Thankfully, we don’t have to wait long, as Osotsi’s defiant colleagues immediately picked Kisumu as their next destination after Nakuru.

Every kick and blow aimed at the senator was a confirmation that in regime circles, persuasion has taken leave and only the philosophy of beating into submission is left. And it left me with one question: if Kisumu is as pro-government as the Luo Nyanza leaders in the broad-based arrangement purport it to be, why is violence needed to pummel people into accepting it?

In recent times, senior ODM officials aligned to government have been guilty of hosting rallies and functions where some speakers have sworn that no Linda Mwananchi leaders would be allowed into Kisumu.

Surprisingly, where broad-based parrots in Luo Nyanza vow to harm anti-government voices, you wouldn’t hear such rhetoric coming from President Ruto’s hometown of Eldoret, or any of the core UDA bases.

Broad-based ODM folks and government employees from Luo Nyanza have typically taken to grieving more than the bereaved, in the sense that their desire to portray ownership of the government is obsessively stronger than original UDA supporters from President Ruto’s Rift Valley backyard.

And in their quest to create a pro-regime enclave in Luoland, they fear that if they don’t kick opponents to pulp, the wind will blow and the proverbial behind of the chicken will be exposed, revealing the fakeness of it all.

The attack on Osotsi represents a red line that has been crossed. First, it confirms that there is a desperation that exists in high places, to a level that dangerous tools are deployed to mask how insecure some officials feel. The actions of the goons captured on CCTV confirm your worst fears; that these are not intelligent enough humans to know when to stop.

The viciousness could have caused the death of the senator, and we would be on the international news as the country where a senator was killed on the streets in cold blood, for holding divergent opinion.

This is where goon owners and sponsors surprise me. Once deployed, possibly under influence of a few unholy concoctions, the thugs are not smart enough to know when to stop or how to gauge the consequences of their actions.

And the death of a serving legislator in the streets, which would make history as the first sitting one to be murdered by mob justice since independence, would in fact lead to such a huge fallout that the sponsors themselves would have to be known.

The problem with the goon philosophy is that it is a very costly venture to sustain, not just in terms of resources, but in terms of public perception and national stability.

Since sponsors do not exercise direct control of them on the streets, gangs soon morph into bigger, dangerous entities loyal only to the actual gang commanders in those streets. And of course, they then soon find other sources of illicit income after cutting off their original sponsors.

The Kisumu gangs and their owners could do well to read a history of the Mungiki, to understand how theirs is likely to end. Starting off as a sect seeking a return to old Gikuyu traditional values and lifestyles, the Mungiki quickly took the predictable path by becoming a tool for political actions. It changed loyalties with regime changes and was often used to assert tribal and political desires.

But it grew into an uncontrollable illicit movement, engaging in every sort of crime, from murder to extortion and into a street gang for hire. All such gangs end up embarrassing their benefactors, and when the Mungiki did, especially after the Kikuyu community from which it drew its members had had enough of the sect, the state went after the gang in the most savage manners.

Not only was a special police squad formed to eliminate its leaders, but some of the methods deployed to deal with the gang would have made the devil cringe.

This is where I would advise the emerging gangs in the lakeside city that when the time comes, they’ll be dispensable and the leaders from whom they seek protection to conduct crime will have moved on to other things.

These leaders, after all, still need to maintain the image of clean, well-grounded, married and religious people who wouldn’t hurt a fly. If a few thugs in town want to mess this carefully crafted profiles, someone else will be called to deal with it.

Those of use who grew up in the 90s saw political goons on the streets quite regularly. In fact, a vicious battle for control of Luo politics was fought between supporters of Raila Odinga and James Orengo right on the same streets of Kisumu. However, there was always an unwritten rule; there would never have been a direct attack on the leaders.

Least of all, in peace time in a restaurant bang in the middle of town. At any rate, youth on youth political combat is acceptable at some level, without sending 20-year-olds to kick a legislator in his 50s with a bulging stomach, already lying on the floor.

Interior CS Kipchumba Murkomen has already directed the Police IG to use every available mechanism to go after the emerging gangs currently becoming a menace in the nation.

It is difficult to tell if this is mere lip service, but the CS must know that his own policemen have just concluded a tour of duty in Haiti, which degenerated into gang rule through similar political thuggery. The typical signs of failed states are never too far away to see and hear. But he should ask the police to zero in on the sponsors, and not just the thugs.

Politics and statecraft are delicate games where backchannelling is a constant manoeuvre deployed to keep communication open even between sworn enemies.

This is because the elements of national stability are not only found within official state structures, but within the opposition too. Anyone in government who thinks that pummelling opponents in the streets is what helps assert authority is naive beyond measure.

As we have already learnt from the great Raila, even the most passionate oppositionist knows when to unclench the fist and extend a handshake, for the sake of the nation. Similar, even the most rabid regimes keep backchannelling avenues among opposition forces, because the need to run a steady ship doesn’t require sentiment.

This is why I believe that those who send gangs are fools, who might unknowingly be beating up such backchannelling bridges. It reminds me of a line I keep hearing as the war in the Middle East goes on: Who will you make peace with if you are striking everyone? If you choose to attack the real gentlemen of the other side, who will you reach out to when the time comes?

I can’t conclude without repeating a warning I have made in previous pieces. Every human carries the instinct to defend themselves. Every gang and every brazen action like the attack on Osotsi, only causes the creation of counter gangs and vigilantes to protect the target population.

Again, goon owners who think they hold the monopoly over gangs should be reminded that the more their gangs wreak havoc across the land, the more the population will find a need to counter them in some way.

Just days ago, in my hometown Ahero, five members of such a gang were rounded off and lynched. The longer citizens await police assistance, the more they turn to self-help methods of protection.

And to put it mildly, the images of a senior legislator in the country being beaten like a thief only helps arrive at a conclusion: if it can happen to him, how about ordinary citizens?

The gang problem is not just bad for investors eyeing opportunities in certain areas, or the international community watching the last 15 months before a major general election in Kenya, but it is a wake up call that if not addressed, or if the state seems to simply look the other way, it won’t be long before it is a widespread problem. The Osotsi attack is the red line that should elicit remedial action before it is too late.