Property being set on fire in Kawangware. [Photo/ Plive.co.ke]
The politician behind attacks on innocent citizens in Kawangware area of Nairobi must never be let to walk away freely. After voting during Thursday’s fresh presidential election, a criminal gang went around people’s homes in area Congo and 56, both in Kawangware, violently assaulting all those who had cast their votes. Several houses and businesses were torched, before police moved in to calm the situation. If there is one thing that most Kenyans agree on, especially after the bloody 2007/08 chaos that followed the disputed presidential election, it is that no single person deserves to die for the sake of any politician. The youth must reject attempts by rogue politicians to use them to cause harm to their fellow citizens, who are their neighbours or people their share a lot with. It is heartening to hear that the police are in hot pursuit of the politician, who has since gone underground after it became clear that he was sponsoring the violence witnessed. According to Pastor John Mirung’u, the violence is politically instigated. “It is politicians who are planning the violence which started as a simple demonstration against repeat elections in the areas the IEBC had postponed…not even issues about here but politics of other regions,” the pastor, who has been preaching in Kawangware, said, as quoted by Capital News. This politician, who is said to have planned the attacks at a posh home near the area, must be prosecuted to send out a strong message that times have changed — no one is above the law.