No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

In Kenya, civil society suffered a grave loss as two leaders of the Oscar Foundation were gunned down at a Nairobi traffic jam near the heavily-guarded  State House residence of President Mwai Kibaki. Oscar Kamau King’ara and Paul Oulu, the organization’s president and communications officer, were shot execution-style by two gunmen. The killers then fired at onlookers and casually heading by car into the city center. No Kenya press outlet has reported a license plate number despite numerous witnesses.

King’ara’s Oscar Foundation fought for children’s rights and the enactment of laws to protect children. It recently accused government ministers and police of organizing the murder of innocent people in a government-sanctioned fight against the mafia-style group Mungiki. King’ara also accused the government of extra-judicial killings during and after last year’s civil unrest, pinning to account numerous ministers and officials. King’ara and Oulu were on their way to meet with United Nations special UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Prof Philip Alston before their untimely deaths. Like Tom Mboya and Archbishop Alexander Muge before, King’ara and Oulu can be added to the list of Kenyans murdered for speaking out against the debaucheries and corruption of the “big fish” and campaigning for the basic political and economic rights of ordinary Kenyans.

At this point, little confidence remains in the country’s laws and institutions. The much trumpeted Grand Coalition of Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga orchestrated by former UN chief Kofi Annan after 2008’s post-election violence has descended into a run-of-the-mill vacuum cleaner—sucking out with impunity every remaining shilling from Kenya’s coffers as average folks suffer historic levels of hunger and job loss.

There is much talk by Kenyans in recent days about careening down the “failed state” path of Zimbabwe and Somalia. People are simply tired of the lack of credible leadership. Will enough determined Kenyans band together in time to throw out the government and put the country back on course to national reconciliation and economic development? Time will tell, but each passing week seems to bring new, unfathomable levels of shock and outrage to this former shining star of East Africa.

Kenya Losing The War Against Corruption [Transparency International]

~ by deadmanscurve on March 7, 2009.