PRESS STATEMENT

All information PRESS STATEMENT.Disscuse about for Press Statement.Press Statement-We have received complaints from several Kenyans who sort to serve their country through gainful employment in the Kenya Defence Forces that there is massive corruption, including nepotism, in military recruitment exercises. Many citizens who successfully went through the rigorous quota-based recruitment in their home districts have arbitrarily been sent home from Recruits’ Training School on the whimsical decisions of senior military officers in questionable circumstances. Our specific attention has been drawn to the case of 14 discharged soldiers who had successfully been recruited to rejoin the armed forces Constabulary in 2009. They were contracted in writing and put on payroll, but one day, as they went about their duties, they were summoned by a senior military officer who verbally dismissed them. He issued them with gag orders that should they ever talk they would earn the wrath of the military. He then had them forcefully removed from the military base by an armed detail of the Military Police. There are allegations that the names of the 14 are still on payroll and somebody is earning their money. If that is true, then Kenya is in the unimaginable situation whereby we have ghost soldiers in the military. That is a major a security threat to the State that might only be removed by conducting a headcount of all serving soldiers. Some of the 14 sought and were successfully recruited again this year, only to be unceremoniously thrown out a second time. Among them was Senior Sergeant (Retired) Alpheus Ochieng Kajwang whose plight was highlighted in an exclusive report published on page 3 of the Saturday Nation of November 6, 2010. In view of the reports we have been getting, this story is just the tip of the iceberg of the rot in the military. It is unbelievable that a citizen who fulfils the stringent requirements to serve our forces, and is recruited through a rigorous exercise, can just be dismissed at the pretended discretion of senior military officers with no recourse to an appeal. There are also allegations that some of the young recruits to the core military formations are dismissed shortly before they graduate (pass out) and their positions dished out to relatives and friends of highly connected Kenyans who don’t go through the rigours of military training. If these allegations are true, then we have untested laymen masquerading as soldiers in the Kenya Defence Forces. And that too is a major security risk to the republic. Other than the security threats the ghost and masquerading soldiers pause to the country, those who are unfairly dismissed, especially the youngsters, have skills in the use of weapons that can be tapped by organized crime to heighten the levels of insecurity in the country. Since recruitments are quota-based for purposes of equity and national representation (see Article 241 (4) of the Constitution on the Establishment of Defence Forces and Defence Council), and the number of personnel required is predetermined by military needs, what criterion is followed to replace those who are dropped, given that no follow-up recruitment is carried out in the affected areas, yet the vacancies created are always filled? In such circumstances, and in the absence of contrary evidence, we are obliged to believe allegations that there is an intricate web of corruption through which such slots are sold to the highest bidder, or are taken over by relatives and friends of the well-connected. It is important that our military leaders take cognizance of the fact that Kenyans who offer to serve in the military don’t lose their civic and human rights under the law. Any discretions of the military command notwithstanding, the military are a creature of the law, they are not above the law, and they are not allowed to operate outside the law. Hence, any recruits who are irregularly dismissed must enjoy their full Constitutional rights, including the provision on Fair administrative action in Article 47, which categorically states that: (1) Every person has the right to administrative action that is expeditious, efficient, lawful, reasonable and procedurally fair. (2) If a right or fundamental freedom of a person has been or is likely to be adversely affected by administrative action, the person has the right to be given written reasons for the action. Kenyans will not condone impunity anymore! Therefore, we make the following demands: (i) That, with immediate effect, the military unconditionally readmits the affected 14 citizens and any others who have been unjustly dismissed on similar flimsy grounds, or it fully pays them for their un-served contractual term in lieu of readmission. Failure to which we will be forced to institute public interest court proceedings against the military in general and culpable individual officers for abuse of office. (ii) That the Parliamentary Select Committee on Defence and Foreign Relations thoroughly investigates the matter and recommends appropriate disciplinary action to be taken against culpable officers. Finally, we call upon His Excellency President Mwai Kibaki to institute radical military reforms that will go hand-in-hand with the reforms underway in other public institutions. Failure to reform the Kenya Defence Forces constitutes creating national insecurity. We propose that distinguished retired officers with demonstrated guts like General Daudi Tonje, and General Ken Opande should be tasked to urgently restructure and modernize the Kenya Defence Forces. We need to restructure both the colonial military architecture and doctrine still in vogue and streamline it with the requirements of the new Constitutional dispensation. Among others, the reforms should also address: (i) The need to establish a robust commission or tribunal to take care of the welfare of soldiers and their families; (ii) The need to handle the many grievances of former military personnel who allege that they were unfairly dismissed from military service during the dictatorial First Republic; (iii) The need to fence-in the discretion of senior military officers with clear checks and balances to safe guard the human rights of individual soldiers in the Second Republic; (iv) The establishment of a functioning and visible reserve force to keep tabs on discharged officers, and to utilise the many skills Kenyan taxpayers have invested in them. For example, the discharged soldiers can form an important component in disaster preparedness.