CRIMINAL INEQUALITY : The Big Difference Between Moses Kuria,Uhuru Kenyatta’s Friend And Junet Mohammed,Raila Odinga’s Friend.

Yesterday was a pretty dramatic day that saw eight MPs unequally arrested and whisked off to the CID Headquarters along Kiambu Road to answer charges – some absolutely stupid and flimsy – relating to hate speech.

The drama started in the morning outside Nation Centre where CORD MP Junet Mohammed had been holed up for the better part of the morning after learning that some overly-ambitious Flying Squad cops had gathered outside to arrest him the moment he stepped off the twin towers.

For starters,Junet Mohammed is not your everyday trouble-maker – even in CORD’s tempestuous corridors.

He’s a little-known first time MP representing a region fiercely loyal to Mr. Odinga and who also goes by a very untraditionally Nyanza name. But still,CORD to the core and vocal when need be.

Mohammed,after learning of what was going down outside the Nation Centre,flatly declined to leave the building until his lawyer had been summoned and arrived. His lawyer wasn’t just anybody – He was one of the most hard-nosed,recognizable,thorough and shrewd advocates this City has ever seen. And also a seasoned politician and a man very familiar with Nairobi’s cyclonic city- and street – politics.

Hon. James Orengo,Siaya Senator and Junet Mohammed’s lawyer arrived soon after,sleek and smart,ready for confrontation. And then all hell broke loose.

After they had reached the Nation Centre ground floor,what looked like a bloodthirsty gang of cops surrounded the Orengo entourage,grabbing Hon. Mohammed by his neck and roughing him up like a common chicken criminal in Vihiga village.

Orengo was pushed and shoved too,with the furious cops elbowing the mercurial lawyer out of the way and grabbing his client by his shirt and coat,roughing him up and almost slapping him around.

It was an embarrassing scene – of a Honorable MP whose greatest crime was calling out a fellow MP for making assassination suggestions. And nothing else.

The utterly ridiculous charges that the CORD MPs were slapped with.

Both Orengo and Junet were treated like dog pooh,manhandled and hustled around like teenage boys,pushed into cars and made to look like a bunch of River Road pickpockets and not Honorable MPs with rights and honor.

All of this rumpus was caught on camera by a battery of photojournalists camping around Kimathi Street and what was supposed to be a simple arrest of an MP turned into a messy street brawl and thoroughly putting the CORD legislators to total shame.

On the other hand,Moses Kuria,Gatundu South MP was also supposed to be a guest of the State… Not for making a simple observation but for calling for the daylight ASSASSINATION OF THE LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION.

Yes,that’s the crime that Moses,a despicable national irritant and reckless loudmouth was being accused of.

But no one raided his home or offices. No one camped outside his premises to wait and pounce on his deplorable neck the moment he stepped out.

His arrest (If there was any) was NOT even captured on camera and relayed to the whole world.

No police officer dared rough up this man. This sorry excuse of a human being. This certified,tribal lunatic.

He wasn’t dramatically arrested and ignominiously paraded to the media. He was ABOVE THE LAW and all he needed to do was ” present himself to the police ”,honorably and nobly.

You don’t publicly arrest the Son of the King. You don’t drag him through the streets by his sorry neck and shove his ass into a waiting car,with cameras clicking away.

That’s the preserve of less advantaged leaders. Like CORD leaders.

Muthama’s fate wasn’t any sweeter. His home was surrounded by a gang of more ferocious cops,like Vikings,waiting for him to leave the house and then pounce on him,like hungry Bengal Tigers in the Indian wilderness.

Muthama was literally put under house arrest. And police cars,guns and boots forming a huge fence around his home.

And even in Court,things were different.

Hon. Junet Mohammed’s dramatic arrest

Moses Kuria would be captured later flashing the middle finger – one of the most contemptuous visual insults – to Court clerks and staff,with a less than worried Waititu sitting nonchalantly next to him.

In the meantime,Junet Mohammed,aISHA jumwa and cast kept their cool,even when surrounded by marauding officers and an institution so thoughtless,so prejudiced,so partisan that they could be charged with a crime as remarkably stupid as uttering the words ”Moses Kuria amechaguliwa kwa mazungumzo…Mtu kama yule ni kupoteza wakati na hakuna mwafaka utakaopatikana chini ya Moses Kuria…”

On the other side of town too,Babu Owino would be arrested – dramatically as well- for telling off a murderous MP and castigating him for being so stupid as to suggest the outright killing of Raila Odinga.

But the man suggesting the murder of the Opposition Leader is friends with The President.

And the man rebuking the man calling for the assassination of the Leader of the Opposition is a lowly,less than glitzy,friend of the Opposition Leader.

Their crimes don’t match.

Junet Mohammed didn’t even commit a crime. Neither did Hon. Florence Mutua nor Hon. Aisha Juma.

All they did was heavily censure a madman and call for his immediate arrest.

And all he did was make genocidal remarks and demonize a whole Community.

But in a Country where you are friends with Power,the density of your crimes doesn’t matter. Heck,you’re even allowed to childishly flip the bird at the Court officials and get away with it,gleefully.

And in a Country where you are friends with The Other Side,you will be arrested in a flash,bundled into a car,stripped of your rights,manhandled,grabbed by your waist,elbowed and punched into a waiting car and driven off to the nearest police station like you’re the guy that bombed the Treasury Building.

Criminal Injustice.

Some animals are,clearly,more equal than others. And it sucks.