20TH October Heroes_Mania, its Brothers and Cousins

Heroes are everywhere. Everyone has a hero, heroine. You could be a hero; you could be a hero-maker. 

And the reasons qualifying one to such a position varies from one head to another. One’s hero can be another’s enemy; you can turn that around too. That’s where the difficulty in picking individuals to be rewarded on this Day lies. 

One other challenge is varying heroism. We will not get stuck to rewarding few, same individuals for the next 50 years. Once those identified are rewarded, we need to move forward to search for other heroes, reward them and move on. That is one way this Heroes' mission will be able to garner support and gets felt across the board. 

The criteria used should be fair, diverse, non-partisan and as agreeable as possible to all people.

There’s a greater risk that the awards could be easily hijacked by politicians and top government officials who may want to exploit the Heroes Day to massage egos of their cronies, family friends or business partners at the expense of more deserving individuals.

The Heroes’ Bill is a much welcome legal framework that would help in identifying and giving the criterion to be used in rewarding the identified individuals. 

However, the formulation of the law should be well-guarded from some of the makers who may want to leave open some loopholes so that they exploit in the future. 

The Kenya Heroes Bill objective is to “develop an appropriate legal framework for the development of a clear, effective and impartial system of identifying and honouring national heroes and heroines, in keeping with the national values stipulated in the Constitution of Kenya, 2010.” 

The proposed law further explains that the Heroes and heroines are “defined as persons who, through selfless sacrifice have contributed to the well — being of their communities and the nation as a whole.”

As per the anticipated law, areas of heroism include contribution to the liberation struggle, prophesy, indigenous knowledge, cultural values, scholarship, research, statesmanship and other special achievements.

This is fine but Kenyans would like to see doctors, nurses, journalists, teachers, pilots, athletes, footballers, drivers, conductors, whistleblowers, soldiers, watchmen, farmers and people from diverse professions under the sun get recognised heroically.  

More often than not heroism is restricted to emotions arising from what’s shown on TV. The media helps to point at those who could be considered but that should not be the only way to identify deserving individuals. It is a fact that there could be a herdsman in the far-flung areas in Turkana who could be more deserving of recognition than someone picked in Nairobi. 

The Bill also establishes the National Heroes Council, which will have the responsibility of administering the honours system. Its main functions include formulating policies with regard to the system of identifying, selecting and recommending qualified persons for declaration as heroes, and conducting civic education to stimulate public discussion on national heroes.

Two weeks ago. Too terrified. Noon terror.

Soon unforgettable. Bloody Westgate.

...it’s really difficult to commentate on such a terrifying occurrence. But difficult too to let go without some form of commentary.

Noon September 21 2013 and the newsroom is not buzzing at all. Saturdays are rarely stuffy with assignments. This wasn't different. In fact it was a bit freer. No serious bookings. Nothing newsy—only trying to mine some stories from past events for the next days' analytical newspaper.

Suddenly at noon, TV stations suspend the day’s programming to provide a live feed from Westgate Shopping Mall. At first it wasn't live. At first it was only terrified callers expressing their fears to anchors who were now overseeing the breaking story.

No one is still interested even as some newscasters try as much to relay the intensity and the weight of the attack.

Twitter is presently abuzz with postings on "have heard gunshots at Westgate" and similar information. Nothing big yet.

Things move fast and soon cameras are on the scene and first live pictures are broadcast. The weight, gravity of the siege begins to sink and the newsroom divorce other things to get glued to the TV sets. 

It’s all of a sudden buzzy around: trying to reach out to witnesses, contacting government officials to painting the scene for readers. 

Confusion reigned. Pandemonium was the order of the moment after it became clearer that terrorists had descended on the Mall and were butchering people without fear or interest to stop the scary habit. 

Later that evening, government officers appeared more confused than anyone. If not contradicting statements on twitter, facebook then they were holding press briefings at different places at the same time. The ministry of Interior and National Coordination was the main culprit. When PS Mutea Iringo was addressing a Press Conference at Harambee House, Cabinet Secretary Joseph Ole Lenku, Kimaiyo et al were doing the same at Westgate. Additionally, State House press was also speaking to the media. 

The confusion aside and the magnitude of the heinous incident was really felt the following day when shock was replaced by the reality that suicidal terrorists were holding innocent people inside the mall and security officers were yet to find any breakthrough in rescuing them, when it became real that some terrorists had entered a busy mall and indiscriminately sprayed bullets at people killing dozens and injuring many others.