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Tuesday, November 8, 2011

The Kleptocracy That is Kenya

In a post I wrote about 11 months ago titled "Kenya: The African Mexico, its Stockholm Syndrome and What Somalis Can do to change their fortunes" I wrote this telling paragraph:


 Kenya is being over-run by drug cartels and narco-hitmen. Its unprofessional and untrained police officers are getting whacked Mafia style right in the heart of Nairobi while they are pre-occupied with explaining their bad fortunes on non existent 'terrorists' and burqa clad femme fatales.
The uptick in clashes between Police and drug traffickers is a sign that Kenya's long running drug problem is coming of age. We have now entered a new phase where drug barons feel powerful enough to take on the weak  and co-opted police force. Kenya's is fast morphing into a Mexico. Its now the equivalent of a Brazilian Favella. Traffickers have heavily embedded themselves deep into every level of society and  are virtually controlling law enforcement on this almost failed state.


That prognosis still holds true today and this is the actual war we should be fighting today.

Much of the hooblah surrounding Kenya's occupation of Southern Somalia has gone overboard now. Those of us opposed to the Somali war are opposing it on philosophical, humanitarian and economic grounds. We are not opposed to the war in Somalia because we are lily-livered weaklings. We understand declaring war is different from winning a war and Kenya has over the past 47 years shown that it is bad at fighting.

There is a temptation to take uncritical pride in your country when its defending you against enemies foreign even if that enemy is the imagination of a couple of brain-addled politicians.

The real war Kenya's security apparatus should be fighting is the one against narcotics. Our youths and children deserve to be protected from the evils of hard drugs. Our greatest enemy is the insidiousness of  drugs, the way it separates families and corrupts every lever of our society.

The video embedded below is a good indication.


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