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KENYAN PAPER SAYS MERCENARY SAGA "A REAL THREAT TO NATIONAL SECURITY"
Kenya Times website, Nairobi
15 Mar 06
Text of editorial entitled "Govt should unravel mercenaries puzzle"
published by Kenyan opposition newspaper Kenya Times website on
15 March.
The two people who were the source of the mercenaries' story are now
in the dock, on the receiving end, at least in the imagination of
their political opponents.
Whether Raila Odinga and Kalonzo Musyoka are politically damaged from
the allegations made by the two men who claim to be Artur Sargysyan
and Artur Margaryan and businessmen from Armenia is not the issue now.
There are too many questions than answers arising from the unfolding
saga and Monday's [13 March] anticlimax which make the government
no less innocent than the people now on the spot and others who have
since been sucked into the accumulated matter. These questions need
plausible answers from the government.
The more one would like to dismiss this as a political tussle between
the ODM [Orange Democratic Change] and the government, the more it
emerges that the country is yet to know and understand the full extent
of the unfolding saga.
Kenyans will still demand for answers regarding the suspect manner
in which the two were allowed to use government facilities to make
highly treasonable allegations and a rumbling discourse filled with
factual and practical errors and allowed to get away with them.
If the government did not sanction this, it is imperative for the
public to know if it chose to allow them to do what they did just to
pass a political message to its critics. Given that different arms of
government have given different explanations of this matter, Kenyans
would be justified to demand guarantees regarding their safety. Are
these people mercenaries or not? That is not for Odinga or Musyoka
to answer but the government.
It is the duty of the government to investigate and make Odinga prove
his earlier allegations and the claims by the alleged mercenaries
that the Langata MP and his Mwingi North counterpart sought their
help to overthrow the Kibaki regime.
As if Police Commissioner Hussein Ali and CID [Criminal Investigation
Department] Director Joseph Kamau's contradictions on this matter are
not enough, it now appears that the two men may not have come to Kenya
through formal channels at JKIA [Jomo Kenyatta International Airport].
The split in the police force reinforced by the 2 March raids on
the Standard Group, in which the alleged mercenaries are said to
have participated, seems to have paralyzed any tangible and credible
investigations. Before the allegations could be investigated, Kamau
dismissed this and Odinga's subsequent claim of mercenaries' presence
in Kenya. Ali, however, promised to carry out investigations.
The fact that the two men were not detained for questioning and that a
so-called police raid on their property was called off shows either no
investigation is taking place or that the government is determined to
overplay this circus for the nuisance political value that it provides.
Evidently these people are here, not by accident, but through some
powerful person or persons out to intimidate and cause fear and
despondence, most likely enjoying the protection of the politically
correct wing of the police. Now that is the real threat to national
security, not what reporters do.
And that threat is coming right from the heart of the government
itself, not in Yerevan.
Kenya Times website, Nairobi
15 Mar 06
Text of editorial entitled "Govt should unravel mercenaries puzzle"
published by Kenyan opposition newspaper Kenya Times website on
15 March.
The two people who were the source of the mercenaries' story are now
in the dock, on the receiving end, at least in the imagination of
their political opponents.
Whether Raila Odinga and Kalonzo Musyoka are politically damaged from
the allegations made by the two men who claim to be Artur Sargysyan
and Artur Margaryan and businessmen from Armenia is not the issue now.
There are too many questions than answers arising from the unfolding
saga and Monday's [13 March] anticlimax which make the government
no less innocent than the people now on the spot and others who have
since been sucked into the accumulated matter. These questions need
plausible answers from the government.
The more one would like to dismiss this as a political tussle between
the ODM [Orange Democratic Change] and the government, the more it
emerges that the country is yet to know and understand the full extent
of the unfolding saga.
Kenyans will still demand for answers regarding the suspect manner
in which the two were allowed to use government facilities to make
highly treasonable allegations and a rumbling discourse filled with
factual and practical errors and allowed to get away with them.
If the government did not sanction this, it is imperative for the
public to know if it chose to allow them to do what they did just to
pass a political message to its critics. Given that different arms of
government have given different explanations of this matter, Kenyans
would be justified to demand guarantees regarding their safety. Are
these people mercenaries or not? That is not for Odinga or Musyoka
to answer but the government.
It is the duty of the government to investigate and make Odinga prove
his earlier allegations and the claims by the alleged mercenaries
that the Langata MP and his Mwingi North counterpart sought their
help to overthrow the Kibaki regime.
As if Police Commissioner Hussein Ali and CID [Criminal Investigation
Department] Director Joseph Kamau's contradictions on this matter are
not enough, it now appears that the two men may not have come to Kenya
through formal channels at JKIA [Jomo Kenyatta International Airport].
The split in the police force reinforced by the 2 March raids on
the Standard Group, in which the alleged mercenaries are said to
have participated, seems to have paralyzed any tangible and credible
investigations. Before the allegations could be investigated, Kamau
dismissed this and Odinga's subsequent claim of mercenaries' presence
in Kenya. Ali, however, promised to carry out investigations.
The fact that the two men were not detained for questioning and that a
so-called police raid on their property was called off shows either no
investigation is taking place or that the government is determined to
overplay this circus for the nuisance political value that it provides.
Evidently these people are here, not by accident, but through some
powerful person or persons out to intimidate and cause fear and
despondence, most likely enjoying the protection of the politically
correct wing of the police. Now that is the real threat to national
security, not what reporters do.
And that threat is coming right from the heart of the government
itself, not in Yerevan.