Habari Mwalimu Odipo
I served the Kenya Air Force as a Legal Officer for a number of years. Allow me to correct Mr. Dominic Odipo or is it Professor Odipo? He got it wrong all in his commentary today. To begin with, Hezekiah Rabala Ochuka, was and has never been a Senior Sergeant in the Kenya Air Force. He was a mere Senior Private Grade 1. That is the lowest ranking Non- Commissioned Officer in the Armed Forces of the Republic of Kenya. His main accomplice was one Senior Sergeant Pancras Oteyo Okumu. Both were hanged after trial and conviction by Court Martial. Mr. Odipo's intimation that Ochuka was a Senior Sergeant is incorrect and a distortion of historical facts. He should correct it if his intention is to infom the more than half of the Kenya population he claims have no knowledge of the attempted coup.
Odipo appears to suggest that the Armed Forces should make merry and celebrate August 1 as a milestone. This exposes him as an ignorant person on matters military. The primary duty of the Armed Forces of any country is the defense of the territorial integrity and political independence of the State. The legitimacy of a government is not the same thing as it is competency. Members of the armed forces are trained to obey a legitimate government and have no mandate or authority to question its political competency. The armed forces are supposed to be politically neutral at all times and that is why mutiny or the willful disobedience to the established political order is one of the most serious offences that can be committed by a serving officer or soldier. It is punishable by death.
There is nothing to celebrate about the unfortunate and disgraceful events of August 1, 1982. The character of any nation, country or state is defined by the behaviour of its armed forces. Kenya was about to suffer the ignominy of a military dictatorship or sink to a state of absolute lawlessness due to the political adventurism of a few people. There are those who think that the coup plotters are heroes and have all the right to think. They even have a right to claim as they do that Ochuka ruled Kenya for 6 hours if that serves any purpose to their egos. It is however wrong for an intellectual to seek to justify the overthrow of a lawful constitutional order through illegal means. It was unacceptable then and still is today. The civilian accomplices of the 1982 attempted coup plotters were lucky to get way with it, notwithstanding the number of deaths, suffering and destruction they visited upon Kenyans. Some are still unrepentant and have even glorified their participation in biographies. Ironically, one or two are even seeking a political office that will bestow them with the title "Commander- In - Chief of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Kenya".
Political pluralism was no restored in Kenya after the attempted coup. If anything, history shows that the government and the political regime became more repressive. That was the main lesson that the political adventurers of the time should have learnt. 1982 was not the first time that politicians had attempted to take overthrow a legitimate government in Kenya. There were other mutinies in 1964 and 1971. Records are there to show who were involved and the resultant action by government. The plotters of the 1982 coup did not seem to have learnt anything from the earlier events. Their sympathizers do not seem to have learnt any lessons too and love to politicize even military matters they have very little knowledge about up to this day. This is sad for our nascent democracy. It is bad to glorify the events of August 1, 1982 or to even suggest that our Armed Forces should regard that day with any significance. August 1982 is a bad chapter in the history of the Kenya Air Force and the entire Armed Forces of Kenya.
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