This is a crime with a perpetrator(s) and victims. The most unfortunate thing in this debate is the tendency for diminutive logic to somewhat give “fine” reason for crime as if there are reasonable “benefits” to application of terrorism to either side. But a mass murdering terrorist is just that, a mass murdering terrorist we can all do without. This is the case we are looking at here and not a YES/NO referendum issue, after all if it passes we should all move on and live by it as Kenyans and the reverse does not need explanation either. I have heard people try to justify crimes in the past by placing the blame on the victim. “She was raped because of how she was provocatively dressed”. BUT there is absolutely no justification for raping even a naked woman in the same bed with you, it’s a crime and she is a victim. “He was shot and killed by the carjackers because he did not cooperate”. BUT there is absolutely no justification for one to carjack shoot and kill, and so on.
Trying to blame a crimes victim for what befalls them is perhaps the most repugnant way of thinking I time and again come across. During the post election violence, I often heard the victims blamed on what befell them, children included, as if they called the violence upon themselves. Sadly, the constitution will not change this way of thinking. It is important Kenyans stop dealing with politics as such a passion evoking issue where violence serves a purpose. In this case the focus should be to get and punish the perpetrator and separate the issue of YES/NO without reckless whodunit speculation that just serves to aggravate the situation perhaps to dimensions you MAY NOT NOW COMPREHEND as you haphazardly point fingers. The general sentiment for any Kenyan should be that this crime cannot be tolerated by any Kenyan (and should not even serve as a reason to vote YES/NO). No cost should be spared in apprehending the perpetrator and the resolve for Kenyans against acts of terror should reign through. Never should we be cowed, intimidated, rushed to act in the violent ways of many failed African states where simple issues manageable through peaceful application of reason, democracy and freedom have been turned into “causes” for violence and murder (war), anyone trying to take us in that direction needs to be removed from society.
Ras Kienyeji Man