Why Kimaiyo and Lenku must go home now

One of our biggest challenges is that we are a myopic nation. A couple of weeks ago dozens of policemen died in a botched operation in Turkana.

There was outrage for a hot second. Then we went back to worrying about the usual inane things. This was not the first time police commanders have sent our officers to the slaughterhouse in ill-planned operations. It is also not the first time something as tragic as this happened, and no one took responsibility.

The Inspector General of Police, is still in office. The Cabinet Secretary in charge of security is still in office. And Kenyans have done a great job of forgetting what happened. That is, until it happens again.

Now, there is a temptation to think that instead of firing those who dropped the ball in the Turkana operations we should rehabilitate them; that the best way forward is by implementing internal change. There are two things wrong with this kind of approach. The first is that this is not the first time that the higher ups in Vigilance House have failed the country, without consequences. The longer the IG and his ilk stay in office, the more we shall collectively remain exposed to tragedies like Turkana, Tana and Lamu, or the scourge of drug trafficking that is accelerating the ongoing rotting of the Kenyan state.

Second, the failure to deal effectively with lapses at Vigilance House sends an unambiguous message to other government agencies and departments that in Kenya failure is never punished. That public officials can fail in the most egregious manner possible – including by contributing to the loss of dozens of Kenyan lives – and get away with it.

That the IG is still in office is therefore a farce of the highest caliber. Mr David Kimaiyo is probably a decent God-fearing man. The same is probably true of Mr Joseph ole Lenku, the Interior and Coordination of National Government Cabinet Secretary. However, the two men have spectacularly failed in their sworn duty to Kenyans. And because of that they ought to resign in good conscience. It is nothing personal, it is simply a matter of assigning blame where it is due. Having the two gentlemen step aside would give Kenyans a chance to evaluate and reconsider the manner in which we should staff important institutions charged with keeping us secure. Should we continue subordinating our security offices to the whims of our political leaders and their godfathers, or should we go for competence? Should we have security and prosecutorial apparatuses designed to protect corrupt government officials and their criminal networks, or should we aim to deal the scourge of insecurity once and for all?

These are questions we must confront and answer honestly. Either we shall continue to have a rotten police force and a government prosecution office deliberately created to be weak, or we will build institutions that will effectively serve Kenyans. We cannot purport to fight crime in one sphere and allow it to fester in others. Crime anywhere only serves to breed more crime. Our police officers are not schizophrenic.

If we allow them to take bribes and facilitate corruption when dealing with Wenyenchi, they will be tempted to do the same when dealing with Wananchi in places like Turkana, Lamu, and in our towns and cities. I reiterate, there are not two ways about it. We either have to reform our security institutions, or remain stuck with runaway insecurity. Those who imagine there to be a third middle ground in which we can have our cake and eat it are outright delusional.

We must develop a political culture that does not reward failure. And the first step in this quest involves a resolve to at the very least, ask those who fail on their job to resign. Going back to the Turkana massacre, it does not matter what the officers were doing up in the northwest of the country. What we know is that the policemen were ambushed by a well-organised group. This points to a failure of intelligence. Where did things go wrong?

Kenyans and our government have forgotten about the Turkana officers. We have a duty to remember their ultimate sacrifice. But at the same time, we must push for reforms of the Police Service and the state prosecution office. Now more than ever, the country needs steady hands handling the question of how to stem and reduce present day endemic insecurity. It is simply not the time to continue being stuck by individuals not fully aware of their roles and seem to govern through the TV and radio. These are not the people who should be representing us in 2014.