I think the big mistake here was to record and air the clip to us softie city dwellers. This kind of thing should never have been recorded on tape and should never have been aired.

As to what happened there........... let me put it this way, the culture, the terrain and the kind of conditions people live in in these pastoralism areas are some of the harshest anywhere in the world. These guys persistence in keeping a secret, bravery, tolerance of pain and pride in cattle rustling make them the toughest enemies anyone can encounter. Look, that boy is not more than 16 or 17 and after all that beating, not a wet eye or even anything that shows that he has felt any pain. I don't think you would get a lot of information from him by asking him politely, "Naomba, utuambie mahali ngomb'e mlizoiba ziko la sivyo tutakufikisha mahakamani uchukuliwe hatua za kisheria."

Most of us are softie city dwellers who get sore and blistered just by wearing tight new shoes. Let us not pretend to know what it takes to deal with strong, tough, nature hardened proud Turkana cattle rustling warriors.

What Kusadikika is saying in other words is that

That British were right to kill, rape and massacre Africans since the terrain and the barbarism of the African required it. It was the only way they could understand things.

Now if that is not ukoloni mambo leo, I don't know what is.

If the Kenya police cannot deal with cattle rustlers then they should quit not go around beating 18 yr old boys.

A Turkana 18yr old boy is just as important as a Kikuyu, Luo, Kalenjin 18yr old boy. He should have been arrested and taken to court. Of course that is imagining that the Kenya police understand the meaning of law, investigating and Latin.

He was taking care of his balls.

Or, he was methodically setting himself up for promotion.

Or even both.

The British were not right Alma. They were effective in achieving their objective which was to subdue an enemy and take their territory. Right and wrong depends on which side you are on. In the case of the British torturing and raping Africans they were dead wrong because we are Africans. In their eyes we were not just Africans, we were criminals and enemies.

Now let us turn our eyes to this case of cattle rustling. The Turkana, Maasai, some Kalenjin tribes, Pokots and so on have been practicing cattle rustling as a way of life for as long as they have existed. They don't do it because it is easy. It is a tough, scary and dangerous affair. Their cultures evolve to prepare them for battle and hardship to undertake it and young men train hard and take pride in being able to organize and pull off raids.

A mzungu comes along puts boundaries on their land and tells them this cattle rustling thing is a crime. So the mzungu has turned a Turkana warrior living his life the best way he knows how into a criminal. The mzungu leaves and we inherit his government and his laws. So you are right again Alma, for as long as we treat cattle rustlers as criminals it is ukoloni mambo leo.

We, as the people of Kenya have told the Turkana and Pokots and all the rest that they cannot practice their culture of cattle rustling. It is criminal. We are now the British and the Turkana are now Africans. We want to achieve the objective of a peaceful, law abiding nation. The pastoralist cattle rustling communities of Turkana and Pokot and the others will fight to keep their way of life. Believe me we do not have the resources to arrest, prosecute and jail all cattle rustlers. The police and those Anti stock theft units are dealing with it. This unfortunately is what they have found to be effective.

There is no clean straight forward solution to this problem.

Citizen news now says the boy was 15 at the time of the attack in 2009. He has been interviewed at his home in West Pokot(he is Pokot not Turkana) and claims he was doing his duties when he was arrested without explanation and taken to the camp where he was tortured.