For Kenya’s sake, political leaders must rein-in social media fanatics

Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta (L) prepares to make his statement to the nation at the State House in Nairobi on September 22, 2013, following the overwhelming numbers of casualties from the Westgate mallshooting in Nairobi. With him are former Prime Minister Raila Odinga and former deputy PM Musalia Mudavadi. AFP PHOTO / JOHN MUCHUCHA 

In Summary

• Both President Kenyatta and Mr Odinga have on their payrolls certifiably mad warriors on Twitter & Facebook”

By Macharia Gaitho
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Seeing those images of President Uhuru Kenyatta and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga in a display of national unity almost prompted me to give a silent salute to Al Shaabab.

It need not take a dastardly terrorist attack and dozens of innocent lives to force feuding Kenyan leaders to close ranks against common threats, but that is what happened.

As a nation, we will not effectively tackle the evil terrorists within and without unless we first realise that the nation will always be more important than the individual; and that the national good must always override an individual’s quest to take power or to hold on to power.

Now that President Kenyatta and Mr Odinga have been jolted into this realisation by Al Shabbab, whatever accommodation or truce they have reached must not just be a temporary PR.

It must be one founded on more permanent ideals and aspirations, one grounded in the basic principles  that our strength as a nation is predicated on national unity; and that our peace, stability, democracy and prosperity is dependent on the same.

This is not to say that we must enforce an artificial peace or abandon legitimate pursuits of truth, justice and democratic rights.

It is just that we must be a mature democracy where the competition for political office does not have to degenerate into angry conflagration driven by ethnic warlords.

If Mr Kenyatta, Mr Odinga, Deputy President William Ruto, former Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka, and other claimants to national leadership can grow beyond tribal – and I use this term deliberately – chieftains, perhaps they might start to persuade their legions of tribal followers to lay down their arms.

To start with, they can start by disarming their social media warriors.

Both President Kenyatta and Mr Odinga have on their payrolls – or just volunteer fanatics in their service – certifiably mad warriors on Twitter and Facebook who commit gross sins against Kenya and Kenyans.

They specialise on lies, hate speech, vile propaganda, incitement to violence and other activities that can only rate in scale to the radio broadcasts deemed to have contributed to theRwanda genocide.

If those who used the microphone to fan genocide deserved lengthy jail-terms, then those using modern-day electronic communication tools propagate similar hatreds must be treated in exactly the same way.

However, it must also be recognised that they do not do so just as demented individuals. Those who go out of their way to incite ethnic hatred, fan dangerous propaganda or expose the identities of protected witnesses in criminal trials do so in the service of their principals.

Those behaving so irresponsibly on Facebook and Twitter may be doing so in sanitised e-environments, but they are no less dangerous than the political provocateurs who go out into the urban slums or rural villages to incite poor, jobless, ignorant youth to war against another lot of poor, jobless, ignorant youths across the river.

We are fortunate that Kenyans did not again take up arms against each other in the wake of the last General Election, but a different kind of war being waged on social media indicates a depth of bitterness that can only be a precursor to future conflicts.

Therefore, President Kenyatta and Mr Odinga and the other ethnic chiefs brought together by the Al Shabaab threat must call off their social media troops.

Then we can start laying the foundations for a strong, united, indivisible, prosperous nation that will never again be shaken by a bunch of bloodthirsty extremists dedicated to destruction.

The Al Shabaab attack on the Westgate shopping mall exposed our soft underbelly, but it can only help reinforce in all of us the reality that we will forever be targets of those demented merchants of terror on our backyard and front door.

It is only with a common resolve and determination that we shall eliminate a threat that does not discriminate between ODM or TNA.

It doesn’t discriminate between white, brown or black; between Giriama, Teso, Pokot, Samburu, Turkana or any of the other myriad communities, faiths and sects that make up this rainbow nation.

mgaitho@ke.nationmedia.com