Changing civil-military relations in Kenya
James Gondi
2014-09-22
President Uhuru Kenyatta recently caused a national stir by appearing in
public donning military uniform, something not done by any of his three
predecessors. This comes at a time when there is evidence of growing
militarization of the state in Kenya.
Since Kenya attained independence in 1963, successive regimes have adopted a
policy of separating the military from civilian institutions as a means of
ensuring civilian rule and avoiding the participation of military or
paramilitary units in the machinations of governance. This was designed to
prevent regime change by military officials as was the case in many African
countries such as Nigeria, Ghana and Somalia which were plagued by military
coups. At that time, Kenya was an 'island of peace is a sea of conflict'.
The 2007-08 post-election violence was a tipping point for civil-military
relations in Kenya. Heavily armed paramilitary units clamped down on
citizens exercising their right to peaceful protest. The Commission of
Inquiry into the Post Election Violence noted that the use of force by the
police and paramilitary units was disproportionate. There were several cases
of citizens being shot from the back as they fled from the paramilitary GSU
in Mathare and Kibera. There were also several victims of rear gunshot
wounds, including children, in Kisumu and Kakamega.
With the advent of the Jubilee administration, which came to power in 2013
after a hotly disputed general election, there has been a concerted effort
to gain legitimacy through professional imaging, social media and political
control of key territories, particularly where there is perceived potential
for oil and gas exploration. The President's recent visit to Archers Post to
unveil the East Africa Standby Brigade, fully clad in military fatigues, is
symbolic of changing civil-military relations in Kenya and the region.
Previous presidents shied away from donning military attire.
This comes in the wake of the revival of the provincial administration.
There are paramilitary units attached to and at the service of the County
Commissioners contrary to the letter and spirit of the Constitution of Kenya
2010. Other significant symbols of changing civil-military relations are the
proposed Nyumba Kumi initiative and the Nairobi metropolitan brigade. These
would rely heavily on the old provincial administration's architecture and
the deployment of the GSU. The Jubilee administration has attempted to
justify these measures using rising insecurity citing the violence in Tana
River, Lamu and the Westgate terror attack, none of which have been
independently and comprehensively investigated and the findings made public.
The proposed government initiatives appear to be heading towards the
militarisation of the state in many forms. The National Youth Service was
recently provided with uniforms resembling military combat fatigues and has
been deployed to beef up security in key conflict areas, border points and
other potential terror targets. In the meantime, the police remain
ill-equipped, poorly paid and living in squalid conditions. Recommendations
on police reforms, including better working conditions, recommended by the
Ransley Commission and other task forces have never been implemented. There
is a greater emphasis on improving resources for paramilitary units to
engage in civic space rather than improving policing in Kenya.
During the Kibaki administration, this was exacerbated by the Governance,
Justice, Law and Order Sector programme which pumped a lot of money into
security sector reform. Some of these resources were ironically deployed to
purchase heavy military and anti-riot gear which was used to clamp down on
citizens and to forcefully hijack the Chair of the defunct Electoral
Commission of Kenya to swear in the president elect without receiving
adequate results in 2007. This event contributed to the outbreak of violence
in areas dominated by opposition supporters. Skewed resource prioritization
in the Security Sector can therefore have damaging effects on fragile states
and impact on civil -military relations.
The National Intelligence Service in Kenya has also come under great
scrutiny following the killings in Lamu and the Westgate Mall attack. It has
been reported that key intelligence reports from the NIS were not acted upon
by state security agencies including the military and police leading to the
resignation of NIS chief Major General Michael Gichangi. The manner in which
the Kenya Defence Forces, which is not trained for urban warfare, handled
the Westgate mall attack has also come into sharp focus. The foreign trained
Special Forces known as the Recce Unit appeared to be making headway only to
be foiled by the Kenya Defence Forces in a calamitous battle for control
leading to looting and robbery of the mall under the control of the armed
forces while the suspects were never apprehended.
This power struggle between the military and police, coupled with skewed
resource allocation to both military and paramilitary units points to the
growing militarization of the state and changing civil-military relations in
Kenya. During the last years of the Moi regime, the NIS had been
professionalised despite being headed by former senior military personnel.
The civilian component of the NIS had advanced significantly with
professional staff from all sectors. Since Westgate, there appears to be a
reversal in the gains made with more emphasis on military components and
personnel. Both the military and the state have routinely ignored
intelligence reports from the NIS leading to loss of lives. The current
regime appears to favour the military aspects of security at the expense of
civilian protection agencies. This will have an effect on civil-military
relations in Kenya as the political regime evolves.
These observations cannot pass without the context of Kenya's growing role
in galvanizing the East African Community, African Union and other regional
blocs against perceived foreign interference in state sovereignty through
the accountability process of the International Criminal Court. Ugandan
President Yoweri Museveni, who has ruled Uganda for close to 28 years with
significant nostalgia for his military background, has been a close ally of
Kenya's present administration and has played a key role in several state
functions such as the promulgation of the new constitution in 2010 and the
swearing in of Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto, both indicted by the ICC, as
President and Deputy President. Museveni has played a key role in
castigating the West during these functions in Kenya. Uganda is a highly
militarized state and Museveni is proud of his military background often
donning military combat fatigues and carrying his favorite AK47 rifle
publicly which represents potent symbolism around political power and
territorial control.
Museveni has been a key ally to the Jubilee administration, galvanizing the
African Union and other regional actors against the advances of the
International Criminal Court and other international calls for
accountability in Kenya. Rwanda's Paul Kagame has played a more silent but
effective role in this regard. Kagame also invokes public displays of his
military affiliation sometimes donning army fatigues. Interestingly, the
trio of Kagame, Museveni and Uhuru, have all been subjected to some level of
scrutiny for atrocity crimes. Kagame has often been linked to proxy wars
against Hutu groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The investigations
into UPDF atrocities in Northern Uganda while prosecuting the LRA have
unsettled Museveni while Uhuru Kenyatta was charged with crimes against
humanity by the International Criminal Court.
The militarization of the state is often characterized by a desire by the
central government to control the regions, including peripheral territories
and contested borders. This was seen during Idi Amin's reign when he made
reference to territories of Western Kenya as belonging to Uganda. During the
one party dictatorship of Daniel arap Moi, there was a clamp down on
Northern Kenya where atrocities were committed by the military and other
state security agencies during the 'Shifta Wars' as documented by the Truth
Commission report. State militarization is also coupled with potent military
symbolism by its leaders, aggressive foreign policy standpoints and
strategic alliances with transactional hegemonic states like China which do
not impose human rights standards as a part of the conditions attendant to
foreign aid. Potent military symbolism is a critical feature of these
changing civil military relations.
* James Gondi is a human rights lawyer and comments on issues of public
concern. This article was previously published by
<
http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-190171/changing-civil-military-relat
ions-kenya#sthash.D85l3fh2.dpuf> The Star newspaper in Kenya.
Received on Mon Sep 22 2014 - 13:31:39 EDT