Shooting Suspects is Killing Intelligence

The prevailing state of insecurity in Kenyan in general and in our major cities in particular is a sign of deep-rooted cancer in our values as a nation. Resorting to the cheap options of shooting gangsters is akin to immaculately addressing a festering wound that will eventually send us all to our graves.

Our values as a society have been shaken to the core and we must promptly re-evaluate the relevance of our present laws, morals and living philosophy. The spate of wanton destruction of lives is the epitome of our callousness in how cheap a price we attach to life. It’s no rocket science to see the need to going back to the basics of civilized living. Interest groups will predictably and shamelessly bandy high-sounding clichés to explain our predicament. Nothing could be further from the truth, behind their lofty slogans lurks unadulterated selfishness principally tailored to protect their turf to remain relevant for donor funding. Granted, they shout out very valid and sound arguments albeit subjective.

Our country is on fire as a result of living in a serial state of denial for perishable political goals. The obscene gap between the haves and the have-nots has erased any trace of pretence in living the cherished communal lives as Africans. We must see the forest for the trees and stop blaming our shadows and enemies from without fro our own shortsightedness. A total and honest rehabilitation of our egos and values is not negotiable.

Life must be respected for the sacred entity it is and nobody has any authority of play God in taking it away, ex-judicial or otherwise. When the police shoot suspects in cold blood they are simply committing murder which is inexcusable and unforgivable. The law is not naive to grant them the power to immobilize and interrogate such suspects. By killing them, the law enforces are unwittingly killing the evidence and intelligence they desperately need to plan and maintain the country’s security. Unless the police force are inviting us to entertain the rumour that they are merely eliminating their accomplices in crime for fear of being exposed.

Resorting to archaic Hammurabi’s law of an eye for an eye is cheap philosophy that only succeeds in making the whole world blind. Extra-judicial deaths are simplistic and defeat both our legal and moral fibres. Its incumbent upon all of us have an honest re-examinations of ourselves and engage meaningful intellectual discourses devoid of cheap emotions which will only succeed in destroying lives and breaking families. It’s simple, you can’t rehabilitate the dead and two wrongs never made a right

We don’t have the head to merely separate our ears but the gray matter is what makes us different from the inhabitants of the jungle. Unprofessional bravado and chest thumbing from the police makes them no different from the insensitive thugs they hunt. Their beastly actions on TV during prime time news makes one wonder whether any of our kids can contemplate ever being a policeman unless they want to play uninteresting inferior versions of Hollywood thrillers. The police commissioner had done well by rallying Kenyans against the most wanted criminals. But the uncivilized ending eroded the goodwill. Even Lucifer on his knees does not deserve a bullet in his head unless we are comfortable with the nasty scenes of innocent kids watching live movies on the streets and in the estates.

You don’t have to be religious to appreciate the value of life or detest destruction of any of its components . Every Kenyan must teach, understand, respect and practice the cardinal values that define as a society lest history judges us harshly for having laid foundation for the culture to the future generation. Unless we do this and fast, then we are inadvertently busy cutting deals with the devil to undermine God’s singular gift to humankind, life.