ALFRED KETER SHOULD BE HELD TO ACCOUNT

                                            

To say that I was incensed by the viral YouTube video of the Nandi Hills  MP,Alfred Keter and his nominated URP colleague, Sunjeev Birdi, chest thumping , verbally assaulting Police officers at Gilgil weighbridge is to put it mildly.

 I was upset. A little vomit is gathering in my mouth as I write this .I am not the only one.Kenyans, in their thousands have taken to social media to express their dismay and outrage.

 I just finished watching that clip again, and what angers me is not the foul language that he uses (I will leave that to his parents) because it has to do with his upbringing but the sheer arrogance and ‘’we are the government ‘’ kind of attitude is what infuriates me.

The thing is, whatever gripes they might have had with the police officers manning the weighbridge, that’s not just how things are supposed to be done, in countries that have a semblance of the rule of law.  What is more appalling is what he said, ‘’we are the ones making the law; when we want we break them’’

 I would be embarrassed if I was his constituent but again with the prevailing blind tribal loyalty in this county you can’t be so sure. If laws can be made and broken at the whims of such errant legislators, maybe the rule of law is something we say but we don’t really believe in.

The police officer might have asked for a bribe as Alfred Keter alleges ( I can’t independently verify), but with the evidence thus far it foolhardy not to be on the side of the  police . 

They come across, in the video as those trying their best under very intense pressure from a powerful, vindictive and outspoken spitting cobra to enforce the law. To borrow the words of Sir Alex Ferguson in reference to Roy Keane, ''the hardest part of Alfred Keter’s body is his tongue''. It takes a special talent to utter the words mother ‘’f...r!’’  in such a quick succession in a five minutes clip. Moses Kuria must be grinning, he has an ally.

This Man, Alfred Keter, had struck a chord with some of us, who still held out hope that Kenya had few surviving sane Politicians whose hearts beat for this country. I can’t forget how he burst onto the scene as independent, audacious and anti-establishment kind of Politician hewn from the same clothe as Martin Shikuku and  J.M Kariuki  and when he went against the grain to question the dubious manner in which the standard gauge railway ( SGR) tendering process had been done. 

All is not lost,I thought, we have another one whose blood is Kenya through and through.  Some people went as far comparing him to the legendary former deputy speaker Jean-Marie Seroney.It’s clear now that the comparison  was not only hasty but wide of the mark:he has been found out and the real  Alfred Keter has  emerged.

That’s not to say that there are no problems at our weighing bridges but to intimidate the hapless police officers by invoking  both the name of the president and Rift Valley regional commissioner, Asman Warfa is what we call abuse of office in our books of law.

 The script that is so reminiscent with the past, what has become common place now, politicians using their proximity to power to have their way. I know he has justified his actions by saying under the circumstances he was right to use such unpalatable language but what he doesn't know is that it is him the video casts in very bad light and not the anonymous police officers his venom was aimed at. 

You cannot excuse the inexcusable, if indeed Keter had evidence as alleges, I am sure the ethics and anti-corruption commission (EACC) would have gladly looked into it.

What irks me most is that this incidence  is not  isolated, it is not so long ago, Nairobi Senator, Mike Sonko was reported to have stormed  Mtwapa Police station with armed guards brandishing guns  to demand the release of his water tanker that had been detained. This  trend by jubilee politicians is troubling: They are affiliated to the President’s side of the political divide (though the  president has distanced itself from this unlawful acts) but whatever  way you look at it the President should act ,go beyond words and take decisive action because ultimately the buck stops with him.

 Someone should be made an example of, aren’t we getting tired of strong worded rhetoric with very little corresponding action?

Admittedly, there are many swollen-chested Keters in Kenya. The sense of entitlement exhibited by politicians in this country is sickening to the core, as if it’s  their divine right to be in elected leaders and they have a different set of rules under which they operate. 

I am asking the DPP to seize this opportunity,to go beyond summons and let this man face the full force of the law. Charge him, with anything, as long as justice is done and seen to have been done.