Kenyans, it is often pointed, out have short memory spans. It is doubtful that this be a physiological phenomenon unique to us, but the reality that we don't reflect over the lessons learnt from past tragedy, is our undoing!

A case in point is the ghastly attack carried out on the Standard Media Group by state agents a year ago. Whatever happened that night should be the subject of our continuing and ardent attention.

It was so sad to see on that day, that even in this century, a high profile cabinet minister who, instead of vilifying the event, boastfully claimed that it was warranted and its perpetrators actually deserved merit. In effect, the minister was saying that Kenyans should not bother with the rigours of the law when confronted with disputes against their neighbours.

In commemorating the event of 2^nd March 2007, the Standard Group Deputy Chairman and strategy adviser Mr. Paul Melly mentioned that the attack was perpetrated by only a few individuals within the government, and that the event therefore one should not use that chance occasion to blame the government in totality or to politicize the issue.

On this point I disagree with him. One year down the line, the Narc Government has not come out to condemn the raid. No action whatsoever has been taken on the well known perpetrators of this ill. The government has not done anything to distance itself from this crime. By implication the principle of collective responsibility should call to account all in the government notwithstanding their role in the saga, if any. For government machinery was utilized on the material day; which machinery has been obtained by funds from the tax paying Kenyan.

Had those concerned acted outside their mandate and without sanction from the government, we would by now have seen criminal prosecutions mounted against all concerned. Unfortunately, that seems to be far fetched at the moment because what reigns instead is a profound disrespect for the rule of law.

Further the materials violently stolen by state agents are yet to be returned as if keeping 'evidence' without preferring a charge against the party being investigated a year down the line does not amount to a travesty of justice.

Half a year after the Kiruki Commission handed over its report to the President, even though the commission had neglected to call some key witnesses, no cogent legal action has been undertaken or anyone arrested with regard to the raid. Perhaps the perpetrators are "untouchables" and the regime is ignorant of how abhorrent such views are to morality and respect of law, especially for a nation that has grappled with human rights abuses ever since the days of the slave trade and colonialisation by imperial Britain.

Those behind the raid and their sympathizers, as is clear now, fail to appreciate the enormity of the crime that was committed on that day. What transpired on that fateful day was an intrusion of the fundamental freedoms and liberties of the Kenyan people. It was a flagrant breach and abuse of the right and freedoms so enshrined and protected by what is supposed to be the most revered law of the land - the Kenyan Constitution!

It is sad and disturbing that one of the highest ranking cabinet ministers, the very one charged with our internal security and defense could boast following the raid, that it was well deserved. If the government had qualms with the manner, style or content of media reports, it must resort to the well established legal mechanisms to curb the problem. For the government or its officials to resort to acting with violent impunity sets an ominous precedent for the conduct of dispute resolution. This really is no different than what the gun toting robbers have been doing of late- showing no respect for the sanctity of life and the private property of others.

It should forever remain in the minds of Kenyans that no individual not even any government has the right to wage wanton violence on the liberties of others no matter his or her stature. The government and its structures exist by virtue of the Constitution and the will of the Kenyan people, so for it to turn around and break it, amounts to rubbishing its own existence, an abrogation of the very social contract upon which the state is founded. He who breaks the law must account for it!