Mind Boggling
By Njeri Mucheru-Oyatta
Chapter 70
What about killing? Killing is nowhere close to being as common as stealing. I have often wondered to myself whether I could ever be capable of killing someone. I cannot imagine killing even someone who has killed a loved one of mine. But then again, perhaps given the chance, I would! I am certain that I can never make a conscious decision and execute a plan to kill someone, anyone, of my own free will. In fact, if I was threatened with death and asked to kill someone, I would just let myself be killed.
In my country there is a group of errant youths who gathered themselves together into a sect. The sect members were unleashed into the society with a mission of establishing a parallel government and collecting taxes from all and sundry using threat of force. They are akin to the Mafioso, just not as sophisticated. The sect grew into an organized gang and some people said that it was funded and perhaps initiated by some powerful politicians. These sect members were ruthless in their demands and spared no-one. At the height of their power, the sect members instilled the fear of satan in everyone who encountered them. Eventually our government got tired of the menace the gang was creating and it is said that they formed a police squad to eradicate the menace. Soon enough a story was told that bodies of young men were being discovered in forests and mortuaries with bullet wounds in their heads inflicted at close range!
Someone told me that as far as he was concerned, that was the only means by which those rogues could be dealt with. And I asked myself, is it really? Is killing allowed if the person you are killing is a baaaaaaad man? Not according to the Bible. There are no exceptions. It just commands that you shall not kill. I thought that assassinating the young men was not a solution to the problem at all. In fact, it only enlarged the problem. The question that should have been asked in an effort to solve the problem of this gang of ruthless sadists was: “What is their motivation?” “What attracts the members to join such a group instead of joining organized society and living within the limits of the law?”
I thought that part of their inspiration must have been the fact that one of our cabinet ministers was himself training a private army of his own youths. Other cabinet ministers were even linked to the creation of the sect! The larger part of their inspiration is of course unemployment, illiteracy, poverty and other problems which require a lot of money to solve. I suppose our leaders were not prepared to consider the possibility of forming a body that could address the problems of these young men and perhaps create for them a quasi-army institution where they could be rehabilitated. Imagine killing all those young men? Did they really deserve to die? Are there any consequences to those who killed those evil young men?
The Bible contradicts itself on the issue of killing. Killing during war was allowed and God permitted the leaders anointed by Him to kill off a whole city of people who did not know Him. David killed goliath! So why should we not have killed those demons of sect members?
My understanding is that you can kill in self defence. In war, you can kill because you are defending your life. God will understand if you kill someone who is threatening your life. Even the law recognizes self-defence as a defence to a charge of murder.
Were those sect members killed in self-defence? Yes, they threatened our lives and did kill some innocent people. But the circumstances in which they were killed was not one of combat. The people who killed them ambushed them, overpowered them, rendered them helpless and killed them. Differentiating sect members from ordinary young men trying to fit into society was no easy task for the assassination squad. Some innocent young men were killed in the process. These were someone’s father, son, brother, cousin, nephew or uncle. Their heads were blown off for the sake of eradicating an uncontrollable sect. I wonder if those left grieving for their loves ones can understand that the killing was for a good cause and accept that their relative was a martyr!
I also wonder whether the killing of these young men is a crime attributable only to those who actually pulled the triggers. I read the story of King David and Uriah in the Bible. King David organized for Uriah to be placed at the front line in battle without back-up so that he could be killed by the enemy and King David could have Uriah’s beautiful wife, Bath-sheba. God held King David responsible for the death of Uriah even though King David only issued a directive. It seems then that you don’t have to be the killer to be affected by the killing. And the punishment God dealt on King David was that his son died.
DO NOT KILL. IF YOU DO, YOUR CHILDREN WILL DIE YOUNG.
From this experience of the attempt to eradicate the sect, I have a better understanding of how terrorist gangs invade a country and plant bombs to kill the citizenry! I am quite certain that the sect has not been eradicated and soon enough, they will have their revenge. And when they kill our children, we shall know who the real killer is. It is us for supporting leaders who are murderers.
By Njeri Mucheru-Oyatta
Chapter 70
What about killing? Killing is nowhere close to being as common as stealing. I have often wondered to myself whether I could ever be capable of killing someone. I cannot imagine killing even someone who has killed a loved one of mine. But then again, perhaps given the chance, I would! I am certain that I can never make a conscious decision and execute a plan to kill someone, anyone, of my own free will. In fact, if I was threatened with death and asked to kill someone, I would just let myself be killed.
In my country there is a group of errant youths who gathered themselves together into a sect. The sect members were unleashed into the society with a mission of establishing a parallel government and collecting taxes from all and sundry using threat of force. They are akin to the Mafioso, just not as sophisticated. The sect grew into an organized gang and some people said that it was funded and perhaps initiated by some powerful politicians. These sect members were ruthless in their demands and spared no-one. At the height of their power, the sect members instilled the fear of satan in everyone who encountered them. Eventually our government got tired of the menace the gang was creating and it is said that they formed a police squad to eradicate the menace. Soon enough a story was told that bodies of young men were being discovered in forests and mortuaries with bullet wounds in their heads inflicted at close range!
Someone told me that as far as he was concerned, that was the only means by which those rogues could be dealt with. And I asked myself, is it really? Is killing allowed if the person you are killing is a baaaaaaad man? Not according to the Bible. There are no exceptions. It just commands that you shall not kill. I thought that assassinating the young men was not a solution to the problem at all. In fact, it only enlarged the problem. The question that should have been asked in an effort to solve the problem of this gang of ruthless sadists was: “What is their motivation?” “What attracts the members to join such a group instead of joining organized society and living within the limits of the law?”
I thought that part of their inspiration must have been the fact that one of our cabinet ministers was himself training a private army of his own youths. Other cabinet ministers were even linked to the creation of the sect! The larger part of their inspiration is of course unemployment, illiteracy, poverty and other problems which require a lot of money to solve. I suppose our leaders were not prepared to consider the possibility of forming a body that could address the problems of these young men and perhaps create for them a quasi-army institution where they could be rehabilitated. Imagine killing all those young men? Did they really deserve to die? Are there any consequences to those who killed those evil young men?
The Bible contradicts itself on the issue of killing. Killing during war was allowed and God permitted the leaders anointed by Him to kill off a whole city of people who did not know Him. David killed goliath! So why should we not have killed those demons of sect members?
My understanding is that you can kill in self defence. In war, you can kill because you are defending your life. God will understand if you kill someone who is threatening your life. Even the law recognizes self-defence as a defence to a charge of murder.
Were those sect members killed in self-defence? Yes, they threatened our lives and did kill some innocent people. But the circumstances in which they were killed was not one of combat. The people who killed them ambushed them, overpowered them, rendered them helpless and killed them. Differentiating sect members from ordinary young men trying to fit into society was no easy task for the assassination squad. Some innocent young men were killed in the process. These were someone’s father, son, brother, cousin, nephew or uncle. Their heads were blown off for the sake of eradicating an uncontrollable sect. I wonder if those left grieving for their loves ones can understand that the killing was for a good cause and accept that their relative was a martyr!
I also wonder whether the killing of these young men is a crime attributable only to those who actually pulled the triggers. I read the story of King David and Uriah in the Bible. King David organized for Uriah to be placed at the front line in battle without back-up so that he could be killed by the enemy and King David could have Uriah’s beautiful wife, Bath-sheba. God held King David responsible for the death of Uriah even though King David only issued a directive. It seems then that you don’t have to be the killer to be affected by the killing. And the punishment God dealt on King David was that his son died.
DO NOT KILL. IF YOU DO, YOUR CHILDREN WILL DIE YOUNG.
From this experience of the attempt to eradicate the sect, I have a better understanding of how terrorist gangs invade a country and plant bombs to kill the citizenry! I am quite certain that the sect has not been eradicated and soon enough, they will have their revenge. And when they kill our children, we shall know who the real killer is. It is us for supporting leaders who are murderers.
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