All demos are not born equal. Some are good. Like the one held in Limuru on Monday, 26 February 2018. Residents protested against Kitui Governor Charity Ngilu for enforcing a ban on charcoal and sand harvesting in the county.
Not fair at all. There are millions of people in this country who earn a living from charcoal and sand businesses. What does Ngilu want them to eat? Go home and watch their families starve to death? Can she give all of them jobs? The residents of Limuru expressed their solidarity with the businesspeople. And that was very patriotic. A good demo.
For about eight hours, the protesters blocked the Nairobi-Nakuru highway. The resulting traffic jam stretched up to ten kilometers. The demonstrators deflated the tyres of about 200 vehicles. This is the kind of demo that our officers expect civilized citizens to engage in. Deflating a tyre harms no one, or does it?
Then there are bad demos. They turn ugly and bloody. Like the ones held in Nairobi or other towns in recent months by people who certainly do not mean well for this country. Nairobi is particularly not a good place to hold demos because such rowdy actions disrupt business. You see, other places around the country do not really have any important business that our officers should bother about. They can hold demos every day of the week if they so wish.
Our officers don’t like bad demos. It is in their training. They swing into action in full force. They lob teargas canisters, break bones with their batons, make arrests and even fire live bullets. People who engage in bad demos are criminals and should be treated as such. That is the professional thing to do. In fact, we are not talking about demos here. Those are riots.
So, journalists who decide to cover demos should carefully select the good ones, or they could end up in trouble. Indeed the Fourth Estate is advised to entirely stay away from bad demos, give them a total blackout. Why would anyone want to give publicity to people who want to cause chaos and ruin the country? Journalists should preach peace.
In a bad demo, our officers don’t care who is a rioter and who is a journalist. What are journalists doing in bad demos, if not supporting them? There are so many stories about development these reporters should concentrate on. Leave riots to goons and our officers will deal firmly with them.
That happened last week. There was a bad demo. University student demos are by definition bad demos. Why don’t journalists understand this? Remember what happened at Meru University the other week? Would there have been a fatal shooting if there was no demo? Yet reporters keep covering student demos.
University of Nairobi students from Lower Kabete, School of Business, marched to Kenyatta National Hospital to protest against the reported death of one of their own. The young man allegedly died following a mix-up that resulted in a different patient undergoing brain surgery meant for the student. It has since been established that this information was not correct. You see?
At the gates of KNH the students waved placards with messages like, “We do not condone ignorance #Quacksout”. They also chanted “KNH management must go!”
Very, very dangerous! A good demo must be quiet. Like when people go around in silence deflating the tyres of vehicles. No chants. Who told people that they can only be heard when they scream their heads off? Why do some people like shouting? This is indiscipline. Police officers are human. They don’t like too much noise.
Some reasonable singing can be allowed in a good demo, but not exaggerated shouting. And the songs should be original compositions by the protesters themselves. Protesters must not corrupt well-known songs to carry their revolutionary message, yet that was not the intention of the original composers. The law is very clear about intellectual property rights.
If placards are to be waved, the messages on them should be respectful, not insults. Why are placards even necessary? Why do protesters want to stomp, sing and shout and at the same time wave placards carrying the same message? It’s too much.
You have seen a solemn religious or funeral procession? Exactly. That’s what a good demo should look like. Our officers would have no problem with a demo like that. A demo must not be disruptive. Police officers can easily get out of control when they see huge crowds of angry people. Everyone needs to understand that our officers work under a lot of stress.
So, the UoN students went chanting slogans and waving placards. But why do those UoN rioters always have this misplaced sense of owning Nairobi? So wrong. Many of them actually come from remote villages. Their parents come to Nairobi only during graduation.
We need to remind Kenyans that the capital city is owned by the Nairobi Business Community, not vagabonds and urchins. Or broke, scruffy bastards dreaming about Karl Marx and revolution. No, serious people who want to turn this country into the Singapore of Africa.
Our officers sensed danger upon sighting the chaotic sloganeers at the KNH gates. That was certainly not a good demo. Our officers swung into action. There was a stampede. Everyone was fleeing. We pounced on some of the rioters, threw them into our van and sped them off to Kilimani Police Station to sober up.
There were journalists in the crowd. Our officers did not spare them. What’s a law-abiding journalist doing in a riot? Provide coverage? Who exactly wants news about riots? What do such reports add to the development of our country? In fact, they tarnish the image of Kenya as an island of peace, scaring away tourists and investors. Come to think of it, we actually should ban news reports about demos, riots and other disorderly activities. We are a peaceful nation. Why publicize the violence of a few misguided idlers?
The officers chased the journalists around. They arrested two or three, among them one John Otanga, a cameraman with NTV.
This was a very successful operation. Soon the officers restored peace at KNH. You have no idea what the student riot would have degenerated into if it were left to go on. We don’t joke with matters of national security.
This should serve as a warning, once again, to all journalists. Stay away from riots. Ignore them. That’s work for the police. This country needs you to promote development. But if you don’t exercise your profession wisely, well, you will have only yourself to blame.
