RE: Security Laws (Amendment) Bill

I recently finished reading a book by William Makepeace Thayer titled "From Farm House to the White House" - a book on the life of George Washington

I got a beautiful quote from it ... some thing to ponder over:

"Happy it is for this country that the general of their forces can safely be entrusted with the most unlimited power, and neither personal security, liberty, or property, be in the least degree endangered thereby."

And so we ask ... are our governments (or those that control them) willing - if afforded sweeping powers over security matters - to guarantee their citizenry, personal security, liberty, or property, freedom from endangerment is the least degree?

Is the government of Kenya - even as it seeks more authority on matters security by means of the Security Laws (Amendment) Bill - committed to ensuring that personal security, liberty, or property shall be protected??

If not then fuck that piece of proposed legislation!

My Take_

Comments

Integrity and Moral Probity…..hmmmmh?!?!?

As vetting approaches and the potentially high number of judicial officers likely to face the ‘phase 2’ purge… lawyers are falling over each other trying to polish their résumés in the hope of filling up the already empty slots as well as the soon to be vacancies. Hence begs the questions, are these legal practitioners (even with their impressive résumés) going to qualify for these positions? Are they really going to prove that they are persons of integrity? Are we likely to get a fresh deluge of ‘wikileakes’ discrediting their claims as persons of integrity? I have no doubt that many in my profession are persons who conduct their businesses either in private practice, public service or civil society with the highest level of integrity…..but then how many??? As I read the Article is The Standard on confessions of how a lawyer helps pirates ‘clean’ their money….I was left asking my self thought provoking questions as to how many lawyers today would pass the Constitution’s Chapt

Constitutional CRISIS?!?!?!?!

Even as MPs animatedly bang tables at press conferences and heckle in public (some sadly in their mother tongues [ mzalendo where are you?!? ]) about the illegality of the speaker’s ruling and decision to reject debate on the controversial nominations of the Chief Justice, Attorney General, DPP and Director of Budget, claiming that a rejection of the names will lead to a constitutional crisis come 27 th February, it would be very important, at the earliest to clarify exactly what this constitutional crisis would mean – as opposed to what they want their not so ignorant constituents to believe it to mean. Fiction: The judiciary will be left in a mess-vacuum – headless as it were, if there is no Chief Justice after 27 th February. Fact: The office of the Chief Justice though an important one is mainly administrative and ceremonial (or so it has been made under Gicheru). The Court of Appeal’s Presiding Judge is perfectly capable of overseeing the transition in an acting capacity.

THE “HOUSE OF TERROR” – Reflections….

The "House of Terror" - Budapest, 1062 Andrassy ut 60 So today I finally got to visit the ‘House of Terror’ one of those places you certainly ought to visit if you ever pass by Budapest, Hungary! It is described as a museum that commemorates the victims of terror as well as a reminder of the dreadful acts of terror carried out by ‘victimizers’. The building, and the museum inside are a vivid, impressive recreation of different periods of Hungarian history that the country has tried to move on from albeit painfully. The Different sections of the Museum that begins with a hallway full of victims, then instruments of torture, actual cells, gallows and a morgue, witness accounts displayed on screens and pictures that tell a thousand words all bear testimony to the atrocities witnessed and meted. The building housed the Hungarian Nazis in the early 1940’s and later a residence of the AVO and subsequently the AVH who are known to have participated in the worst forms of crimes agai

A Human Rights Defender's Perspective

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