Boniface Manono aka “Bernard Ngatia”, a Kenyan who reportedly died after brutalization by police during the campaign to disband and send the corrupt IEBC Commissioners home, has “resurrected from the dead” to say that he is alive. The story, which saturated both mainstream and social media, said that the man died out of injuries sustained during a moment of police brutality which was captured on camera. The man has since appeared on national TV to say that he is alive and kicking while his photo has also been published exposing the ubiquitous huge scar on the back of his head to prove that he is indeed the man who was brutalized by police.
The story found its way Online after Boniface went into a coma following his brutalization by a riot police office. After the incident was broadcast with a video clip of the brutality going viral, Boniface’s family members panicked, thinking that he had passed on. The family apparently released information saying that he had succumbed to his injuries and kicked the bucket. Once the news hit the Internet, Cord supporters took over and started sending messages of condolences to the family following the “murder” of a loved one while at the same time wishing that Boniface’s soul should RIP.
Once the family was taken care of, Cord supporters turned to Jubilee government. While Bernard was eulogized as a martyr whose life had been ended abruptly by the thieving Jubilee government, the death was used by Cordasian to underline the murderous nature of the Jubilee government.
It is true that since 2013, Jubilee has been involved in extra-judicial executions of thousands of Kenyans through the infamous Flying Squad aka “death merchants”. It is also true that Jubilee has been involved in political assassinations of real or perceived opponents, the latest case having been the assassination of Cord’s anti-corruption crusader Jacob Juma who was laid to rest las Saturday. Juma himself mentioned Deputy President, William Ruto, as a man who was apparently obsessed with his assassination. In a now popular Tweet, Juma even wrote that his assassination had been planned and that he knew about it. When Bernard, another supposed Cord supporter apparently “died” at the hands of brutal riot police, Cordasians had to go for Jubilee’s jugular. When Bernard “rose from the dead”, the narrative also underwent a transformation.
The man’s “rise from the dead” has excited Jubilee’s supporters especially on Twitter where a war of words is raging with Jubilee shibboleths accusing their Cord protagonists of faking stories to gain political mileage. In fact, some retarded supporters of Uhuru Kenyatta have even theorized that Bernad Ngatia, who hails from Kiambu, is not even a Cord supporter because he comes from Central Province, a strong hold of Jubilee. They have not however answered the question as to why Raila Odinga got substantial votes from Central Province in the 2013 elections which was stolen to install Uhuru Kenyatta as President.
Jubilee dregs Online can continue celebrating the “resurrection of Bernard”, but on a side note, who could have doubted the story when the source was the family acting out of a moment of panic following the brutalization of their son by police? Bernard’s “rise from the dead” does not change the brutality he suffered. Although facts about his “death” have changed, his membership or non-membership of Cord is irrelevant. The bottom line is that no Kenyan should suffer police brutality of any kind while exercising a basic democratic right to peaceful protest.
The “resurrection” of Bernard Ngatia into Boniface Manono does not change the political equation on the ground because Cord’s leadership has said that the Coalition will not participate in the 2017 elections if current IEBC is not disbanded and reconstituted. It is in the interest of Jubilee that IEBC is reconstituted because the Coalition is in power and it is its responsibility to organize a credible election.
Details of IEBC’s corruption scandals (including the Chicken-gate scandal) are in the public domain. The fact that IEBC rigged the 2013 election has even been acknowledged by the most insane Jubilee supporters. Today, no thinking Kenyan believes that the 2013 election was won by Jubilee. The legal and constitutional means Jubilee is proposing for the ejection of IEBC Commissioners have been exhausted by Cord and the Coalition has promised not to return there. In fact, the so called legal process has been frustrated by the very IEBC whose rotten Commissioners are being called upon to quit. Under the circumstances, Cord is asking for the minimum as a condition of participating in the 2017 elections.
For now, the three most important issues that ought to concern Jubilee supporters does not include “Bernard Ngatia’s resurrection”. Jubilee supporters should be obsessed with the urgency to address the issue of the untenable stand of Jubilee government which is seeking to retain the discredited and corrupt IEBC Commissioners after a vast population of Kenyans have lost confidence in them. Second on the line is rampant police brutality on peaceful Cord protesters outside IEBC offices countrywide. Third is the use of banned poisonous gas (in the name of tear gas) on peaceful protesters by police while the fourth key issue is political assassinations of Cord supporters and critics. Additionally, the issue of intimidation and arrest of bloggers aligned to Cord (in relation to other matters raised) constitute more serious issues than the “resurrection of Bernard Ngatia from the dead”
If Uhuru Kenyatta has good and honest advisors, and if he listens to them, they should persuade the President to disband IEBC as soon as possible. The most likely scenario is that with Cord staying put with its Monday protests outside IEBC offices countrywide, tension will be rising in Kenya with the approach of each and every Monday. On a long term, this kind of situation is not good for Kenya and its citizens, at home and abroad. Cord has been left with no option but to use street protests as a legitimate and constitutional tactic of achieving political objectives. Uhuru Kenyatta has no choice. IEBC must go!
Okoth Osewe
About the Author
The first is that we will carry on with our weekly protests against the IEBC on Monday as we announced earlier.
tSecondly, we wish to inform our supporters and the country at large that we have written to the Director of Public Prosecutions asking him to institute investigations into the conduct of the police who, on 16th May 2016, without any provocation or justifiable and lawful cause, broke our demonstrations using excessive and lethal force in Nairobi, Kisumu, Machakos, Kisii, Migori and Homa Bay.
We want the DPP to direct that those found culpable should be arrested and prosecuted.
In particular, we are demanding that the DPP ensures that the Nairobi County Police Commander Mr. Japheth Koome and the Inspector General Mr. Joseph Boinet take criminal responsibility for the crimes committed by policemen who were under their command during the unlawful police operation against a lawful and peaceful demonstration.
Mr. Koome brazenly declared that he will not spare the life of anyone demanding the removal of IEBC. He must bear criminal responsibility for the crimes committed by the policemen who were under his effective command and control, or effective authority and control, and for his failure to exercise proper and lawful control over the policemen who were under his command.
The Inspector General also failed to take all necessary and reasonable measures within the law to prevent the policemen deployed on Monday from taking the law into their hands and ended up causing death, injury, destruction of property and mayhem.
Article 238 of the Constitution of Kenya provides for the principles of national security which include the following;
National security shall be pursued in compliance with the law and with UTMOST respect for the rule of law, democracy, human rights and fundamental freedoms.
National security is the protection of the people, their rights, freedoms and property, amongst other things; and
National security is subject to authority of the constitution
Fundamental rights and freedoms include the right to life; equal protection of the law; security of the person including the right not to be subjected to any form of violence from either public or private sources; the right, peaceably and unarmed, to assemble, to demonstrate and to picket; and political rights which include the right to campaign for a political cause.
On Monday, the police in paramilitary formation violated the constitutional principles of national security and contravened in less than an hour all the basic rights which form the pillar of every democratic state.
At the end of the protests, there were nearly ten patients at the Kenyatta National Hospital including women, one of them with a bullet in his chest and others with broken ribs and limbs.
Several other people were treated in hospitals in the city including Mater Hospital.
Another protester Mr. Moroko is now in HDU after surgery at Nairobi Hospital having suffered serious head injuries and a bullet wound on the left leg.
In Kisumu, Kisii, Migori, Machakos and Homa Bay, scores of innocent citizens were brutally assaulted by the police including members of the Kisumu county assembly.
The police administration has unleashed State terror on innocent citizens in the name of law and order. Jubilee is comparing well with the Fascism of the Apartheid state in South Africa before the victorious struggle of the great people of that nation.
The criminalization of the State starts with corruption; autocracy; and the blatant disregard of human rights. The rogue state becomes the felon.
Let the people not relent. We will remain steadfast. Nobody including the Government has the authority to establish government or to reign roughshod over the people otherwise than in compliance with the Constitution. The conduct of the State, including the police, was criminal and outrageous and the president and the Inspector General must bear the responsibility.
Articles 239 and 245 of the constitution of Kenya requires the police service to be non-partisan and impartial and does not allow the cabinet secretary to have any command, including operational command, over the police service. His duties are confined to policy.
Cabinet Secretary, Mr. Joseph Nkaisery has in word and deed taken up operational duties of the police service. His language and rhetoric and that of Mr. Koome had a direct impact and effect on the conduct and behavior of the police on Monday for which he must take responsibility.
We have received information that Jubilee officials and activists including a Nairobi and a Kiambu Member of Parliament recruited mungiki elements to throw stones and rob and loot in the city to make it appear that members of CORD were involved in those unlawful activities. They were not our people.
For us, the struggle continues. On Monday 23rd May 2016 we urge all Kenyans to assemble and to demonstrate, peacefully and unarmed, at the IEBC offices all over the country. In Nairobi the leadership of CORD, KANU, civil society and religious organizations will gather at anniversary towers at 9am to demand that the IEBC must go home.
A luta continua!
Police tear-gas Kenyatta protest
Police in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, have fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of opposition supporters who were about to hold a demonstration.
Some 500 opposition supporters, including 20 MPs, were protesting about a government decision to recognise a breakaway faction of the Kanu party.
The rally, which was to be held in Uhuru Park, was in support of ousted Kanu leader Uhuru Kenyatta.
The police said they were not notified of the protest and so it was illegal.
Last week’s decision by the registrar of societies means Mr Kenyatta, son of Kenya’s founding president, Jomo Kenyatta, is no longer the official leader of the opposition.
Instead, Nicholas Biwott, a former key ally of ex-President Daniel arap Moi takes that position.
Kanu split over whether to join a popular opposition political alliance, the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), which is set to compete in presidential elections due next year.
Kanu was in power for almost 40 years after independence in 1963, until President Mwai Kibaki defeated Uhuru Kenyatta in 2002 elections.
Mr Kibaki replaced Mr Moi, who stood down.
“What has happened today is a travesty of justice and we shall not relent until we, the bonafide officials of Kanu, are recognised,” Mr Kenyatta told a press conference in parliament.
“It wants to manipulate and appoint opposition leaders so that there is no criticism from anybody.”
But government spokesman Alfred Mutua said the demonstration should never have taken place.
“Internal problems should be sorted out in political party boardrooms and not in the street or through intimidation,” Associated Press news agency quoted him as saying.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/6209470.stm
Published: 2006/12/05 10:59:13 GMT
© BBC 2016