Kanu, Besigye and contours of Kenya’s rogue-state

KENYA, the East African country noted for its leisure and tourism, including the globally acknowledged safari, is fast carving a niche for itself. That niche is likely to earn the country a notoriety that could prove deleterious to all other aspects of its national life. If the noticeable conduct of the Kenyan state has been limited to one administration and one political party, it could have just passed as the bad act of one regime or one political party. But within three short years two different presidents of the country had acted in ways that should be of concern to the rest of Africa, the African Union, and indeed the world. Kenya, in fact its capital Nairobi, is becoming a deadly place for visiting opposition figures from other countries in Africa. It’s fast becoming a ground for the capture, abduction, kidnapping, imprisonment, drugging, and facilitating the extraordinary rendition of vocal opponents of authoritarian regimes elsewhere on the continent. The first in such unsavoury conduct in recent memory was in 2021. Uhuru Kenyatta, the son of that country’s independence president Jomo Kenyatta, was the president in 2021. In 2014  he had escaped trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Netherlands on charges of inciting bloody riots over election disputes. Uhuru was the fourth president of the country from 2013 to 2022. Ahead of the 2022 election, he worked against the eventual winner William Ruto who belonged to the same political party as him, and who was in fact the deputy president. Uhuru had been everything anybody could be in the politics and governance of his country including being minister of finance, and deputy prime minister. But apart from allegations of inciting bloody election riots during which scores of Kenyans died, and the humiliating charges before an international tribunal, was his regime’s facilitation of the abduction and extraordinary rendition of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu to Nigeria in 2021. Kanu is the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), a group campaigning for the self-determination and independence of the Igbo in the south east of Nigeria. At the time of his abduction in Kenya, Kanu was an unrelenting and unsparing critic of the regime of Nigeria’s immediate past president, Maj.- Gen. Muhammadu Buhari. Buhari turned out to be an unmitigated disaster and an affliction on the country during the eight years of his presidency. Because of the criminal conduct of Uhuru Kenyatta’s rogue regime, Nnamdi Kanu has remained in prison in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital territory since 2021. An attempt to set Kanu up on February 10, for what he (Kanu) and some other literate commentators described as a kangaroo trial failed. In open court Kanu insisted that the judge had recused herself from the case and so no longer had jurisdiction to hear the case. He also alleged that the prosecutors were motivated by the humongous monetary inducements from the state rather than by the need for justice. Obviously frustrated by the ding dong Justice Binta Nyako adjourned the case sine die and returned Kanu to prison. By the way, Kanu has been in and out of prison for the better part of the last one decade. He had earlier been arrested at the Lagos airport on his return from London, dumped in prison for about two years, arraigned before Nyako and granted bail. He was adjudged to have jumped bail when he escaped a murderous and bloody attack on his father’s home in Umuahia in Abia state by a combined team of state security agents. He fled abroad for his dear life. A similar scenario played out again in the same Nairobi, Kenya in November last year. This time it happened under a different president, Mr. William Ruto, who took over the presidency after a hotly contested election. Dr. Kizza Besigye is the main opposition leader in Uganda, Kenya’s neighbours. For years he has been a thorn in the flesh of a one time freedom fighter and now an eternal ruler of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni. Effectively, Museveni has been the ruler of Uganda since 1986 with the sacking of the regimes of Milton Obote and Field Marshal Idi Amin Dada. He consolidated power during the 2000s and 2010s with the removal of constitutional term limits in 2005 which allowed him to run for president indefinitely. Three years ago Museveni won his sixth term as president in an election marred by the usual massive rigging and the intimidation of prominent opposition figures, and social media shutdowns. His regime is notorious for alleged human rights abuses, torture, arbitrary arrests, extra judicial killings, corruption and nepotism. It is interesting and instructive that this same Kizza Besigye who has become the punching bag of Museveni was his (Museveni’s) personal physician from 1980 to 1982 while Museveni was a rebel leader. About 45 years ago Besigye worked his utmost to keep Museveni in good health. And alive. Today, and for the past 20 years or so, Museveni appears determined to kill Dr. Besigye for consistently contesting for the presidency against him. As we wrote earlier Besigye has become the symbol of opposition to the life presidency of Museveni. And what a price he has been paying for opposing the ‘saviour’ of Uganda. Like Kanu, Besigye, himself a serial presidential candidate, was arrested in November 2024 in Kenya and forcibly returned to Uganda, and held in a military prison. He was said to be in Kenya for a book launch. Then he was charged with firearms and security offences in a military tribunal. The charges carry the death penalty. However, because the trial has been highly controversial and closely watched by audiences beyond Uganda and Kenya from where he was plucked, the case was later transferred to a civilian court, where he is currently facing charges of treason. As with Kanu’s case in Nigeria, Besigye’s trial keeps being adjourned. On February 11, he reportedly embarked on a hunger strike. His health is presently said to be in a poor state. His situation was so