The Command Serum

One of my favourite quotes is, ‘when placed in command, take charge’. As a general, these words by General Norman Schwarzkopf are the harbinger for decision making in the military.

I was appointed the Chief of Defence Forces at a time when constitutional rights were fast gaining momentum and it spelt doom for the army.

To fill up the Somalia war losses, the Kenya Defence Forces embarked on a massive recruitment. The recruits came into the army with notions of fairness, human rights, and honour. In fact, they were as problematic as the general public with their constitutional rights and anti-war sentiment. Each soldier wanted to be treated fairly, to be respected, to work eight-to-four o’clock shifts, and to be given time to do part-time studies to better themselves. Disobedience to orders became the order of the day, no more ‘point and click’ soldiers, no more doing without asking questions. We resorted to hiring private security agencies to guard our barracks.

Somewhere along the way we had gone wrong. The training was not what it used to be in the days of yore when brainwashing the recruits with loyalty and patriotism worked. We produced soldiers and officers who were cry-babies and sissies, rank and file whose being in the army was inspired by action movies and Jason Bourne and Jack Bauer characters.

In all my years in the service I had never wanted to lead an army with no discipline, soldiers who questioned orders, and blatant disregard of the chain of command. When I took over the mantle, I decided to take charge.

It did not work as many soldiers and junior officers were relatives of senior officers. The army was a conglomerate of family dynasties and political empires. But with like-minded officers we brought glory to the army.

The Defence Forces Memorial Hospital pharmacologists together with the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) developed a drug that could manipulate the soldiers and officers. With an army of over 300,000 personnel in active service, we had enough human guinea pigs to test the drug.

Myrianophyl was a mind control and memory erasure drug that made the soldiers kinda robotic, the point-and-click army that I had envisioned.

All the 100 medical reception stations in all military camps stocked Myrianophyl. Then,  the food prepared in the barracks was poisoned to create an epidemic crisis for soldiers to flock the medical reception stations. Alongside treatment, medics administered Myrianophyl.

In addition, each soldier and junior officer was implanted with a microchip at the back of their necks. Before anyone smelt a rat of what was happening and started asking questions why there was an increase in surgery cases in the army, doctors devised a way to secretly implant the microchips.

Moreover, the KDF Research & Development (R&D) Department developed a device that could beam words into the soldiers’ skulls wherever they were in the country. The device was embedded in CCTV cameras around the camps and in offices, radio communication systems, and repeater stations all over the country. The devices’ transmissions could be heard like the spoken word once the microchip was activated, except that it could only be heard within the individual soldier’s head.

We had control of the soldiers to the point where they did our bidding against their will and even against fundamental laws of nature, such as self-preservation. That’s what Lord Montgomery meant when he said that ‘an army is a fighting weapon moulded by discipline and controlled by leaders; the essence of the army is discipline’.

Every soldier and junior officer in the army obeyed orders for even the most unconscionable acts. They were less men than weapons on legs, as robotized as it is possible for a human to be and still breathe. Under my command and leadership, military discipline was top notch and I did not care should the soldier’s consciences ever return they would end up with post-traumatic stress disorder and likely shattered and drunk old men. We needed unquestioned obedience from the soldiers and to hell with the consequences.