In his opinion piece in the Star titled “Is Raila Presidency a Security Threat?” former ICC activist Ngunjiri Wambugu states that Raila is in the norm of making accusations against Jubilee government without providing evidence to support his claims and goes ahead to mention that Raila’s claims that National Intelligence Service (NIS) was interfering with the ongoing voter registration process, that NIS was behind recently multiple flagged voter registrations and shared identity cards, the capturing of people as registered yet they have not been registered and that NIS was taking Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) kits to Uganda and Ethiopia to register citizens of the two countries as voters in the August polls was a threat to Kenya’s National Security.
Ngunjiri goes ahead to claim in his opinion piece that he (Ngunjiri) understands that the security apparatus have a problem with Raila because of the 1982 attempted coup and that he is aware that some retired generals had sworn that they cannot serve under a Raila presidency because of the coup allegations.
Ngunjiri further claims that Uganda and Ethiopia military states are conniving with Kenyan military to stop Raila from becoming president because Raila is a regional security threat and that the two military states who according to Ngunjiri have a history of sending their armies across their borders might send their army to Kenya should Raila win presidency in August to stop him (Raila) from ascending to power due to their (Uganda and Ethiopia) national Security interest which to him (Ngunjiri) is that Raila is affecting war on terror negatively which the three countries have singled out as a common regional security threat.
It is my take that Ngunjiri either penned his opinion piece after revelations that a Jubilee MP escaped arrest in Uganda while the said MP’s Personal Assistant was arrested in Uganda for attempting to have Ugandans registered so that they can vote in the August polls or he is deliberately being economical with the truth. The arrest of the MP’s PA in Uganda negates claims by Ngunjiri that Raila was making claims without providing evidence. Furthermore, Raila did not claim that Uganda and Ethiopia governments were in the racket of registering their citizens to register as voters in the August polls for if that was the case, then the MP’s PA would have not been arrested in Uganda.
One wonders how Ngunjiri, a civilian who is contesting for a parliamentary seat in Nyeri could be privy to the on goings in the militaries of Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia to an extent of knowing their common security strategies. Attempting to bring Uganda and Ethiopia militaries in his lopsided and politically skewed opinion is not only preposterous on the part of the former ICC activist but a serious threat to regional stability and has a potential of affecting regional integration and should be condemned with the contempt they deserve.
By pushing the narrative that Uganda and Ethiopia military could attack Kenya should Raila become the President in August, Ngunjiri is not only abusing the integrity and the ability of the Kenyan Security Apparatus to protect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Kenya but is also an abuse to the sovereign power of the people of Kenya who have the right to elect leaders of their choice.
My advice to Ngunjiri Wambugu is that he should concentrate on his dwindling Nyeri Parliamentary Campaign instead of being overly obsessed with Raila.
Cidi Otieno
Mashinani Institute of Social Justice
cdotieno 