Monday, November 14, 2011
This is because whenever disasters occur, we always seem to be caught napping.
A case in point is the current push to weed out Al-Shabaab terrorists who have proved to be a threat to our security and economic interests.
In the past, whenever such threats loomed, security operations targeted selected groups. This was mainly based on ethnicity, religion and places of origin.
Indeed, when such a threat comes from lawless Somalia, Kenyans of Somali ethnicity and legitimate refugees bear the brunt of these operations.
This explains the profound shock with which revelations by Police Commissioner Matthew Iteere that Al-Shabaab terrorists are now using local youths recruited from Kikuyu, Kamba and Luhya communities came as such a shock.
It is difficult to understand the shock. After all, reports about the recruitment of youths in Eastleigh, Majengo and other slums of Nairobi and Mombasa started emerging three years ago.
This information came from international agencies. Indeed, the Nation published a story last month showing that mosques in Nairobi’s Eastleigh estate and Mombasa have been conduits for the recruitment of hundreds of youths to fight in the “holy war” in Somalia with promises of huge rewards.
The recruitment is an indicator that our youths are ready to kill their countrymen for material gain.
All right-thinking Kenyans should take responsibility for this sorry state of affairs.
We have abandoned young people though we know they have been vulnerable to recruitment by local terror gangs. Now international terrorists have taken up the chore.
The rot starts with the so-called progressive parents who, once they give birth, dump the children on the laps of house-helps.
Once they reach school-going age, they are dumped in schools to be taken care of by teachers.
As a result, while growing up, they feel neglected. They have no one to stand with them, to mentor and support them.
This makes them grow up with a code of conduct set by those their peers. This code dictates that one pursues personal goals without any societal responsibility.
Nobody educates them about the importance of patriotism and sacrifice. Today, our young people are full of false bravado and hostility.
As they endeavour to make a place for themselves in this cynical world, they have no role models to emulate in terms of patriotism and responsibility.
Tragically, those who have been given the job of saving our youth do not seem to have any idea how to go about it.
We can no longer afford to ignore the problems of the country’s young and just relegate them to numbers to provide votes and to muscle for subduing perceived political enemies.
It is an insult to regard our youth as hewers of wood, diggers of trenches and drawers of water by fronting primitive programmes like Kazi kwa Vijana.
If we truly want to rescue our youth from the likes of Al-Shabaab, we must realise that our guidance is needed at this sensitive period in their lives.
If we don’t, of course terrorists will come in handy to fill this vacuum.
Mr Njuguna is a teacher in Gatundu South. ([email protected])