I have been following this case of Alan Wadi, aka Liutenant Wadi, who I am told went to the same school I went to as a boy. I think I will not forgive myself if I dont say something about it, moreso because I have this platform. Foremost, I dont think he had proper legal representation, which is a right to every Kenyan whether they can afford it or not. He was apparently arrested in Uganda, hauled to court and jailed for two years, one year without the option of a fine. Two, I believe the President of Kenya, who is the aggrieved party in this case, would have done better to forgive a young man who is just starting his career. He was, after all, only expressing deep frustrations felt by millions of Kenya, albeit in a crude manner. Three, I personally believe freedom of speech is useless if the freedom to offend is not a core part of it. Alan may have transgressed existing laws but this is one area we need to think about deeply as we continue the journey of constructing the State. Salman Rushdie, who some of us may not agree with, writes, what is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist. Another respected Statesman, Winston S. Churchill had this to say: Everyone is in favor of free speech. Hardly a day passes without its being extolled, but some peoples idea of it is that they are free to say what they like, but if anyone else says anything back, that is an outrage. It seems there are two sets of laws. One for Alan Wadi and his types. Another for powerful people and people close to them. Not to excuse Alan Wadis crude methods, I know there are individuals who have been equally crude, if not worse, but they have never been hauled to court and where they were taken to court, they were released on bail and are walking free. Now that Alan has been jailed, I believe based on new security laws recently passed by Parliament, I think the aggrieved person, in this case the President, would do better to forgive him and allow him to continue expressing himself within existing laws. Jailing him would only breed more anger from some quarters.
Posted on: Sat, 03 Jan 2015 11:08:01 +0000
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