State steps up surveillance to curb insecurity during festive season

From left: Kenya School of Government SMI Director Humphrey Mokaya, IOM Kenya Chief of Mission Sharon Dimanche, Interior PS Raymond Omollo, US Embassy EXBS advisor Scott Ross, KSG Director General Ludeki Chueya and Border Management Secretariat Kennedy Nyaiyo during the launch of Border Security Curriculum on December 18, 2023. [File, Standard]

Kenyans have been assured of adequate security during the Christmas season.

Border Management Security Director Kennedy Nyaiyo said the country is safe from external attacks and terrorism as the State has established proper surveillance across Kenyan borders to thwart any security threat.

Nyaiyo urged the public not to "panic" during and after the Christmas and New Year holidays.

He said officers mandated to ensure security in the country include border management committees collaborating with county and sub-county committees.

"I want to assure Kenyans that our borders are secure. We have formations within our borders between Kenya and Somalia, Uganda, South Sudan. We should not panic during this festive season. Let people go about their business because our country is secure," he said.

'Officers are in constant engagement with the public to sensitise them on the need to secure our borders," he added.

Nyaiyo was speaking during an interview with The Standard where he highlighted government's plans to address challenges of border security including illegal trade, human trafficking and terrorism.

He revealed that technology tops the BMS Secretariat agenda to counter the dynamics of cross-border security threats within the 35 border points.

The BMS Secretariat domiciled in the State department of Interior and National Administration was established under Border Control and Operation Commission Committee through security laws amendment of 2014.

He said the secretariat is deploying highly sophisticated drones for surveillance with "wide view of environment" and scanners for including cargo and buggy scanners for customs as well as thermal scanners for port health.

"We also have smart gates which are specific to quick cargo movement. You only need to use your biometrics to exit or to enter Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.  We intend to have more threats in all our international airports," Nyaiyo said.

"We have tried to invest heavily in this technology, and also infrastructure so that we have spaces for officers to work comfortably to protect the country," he added.

He said they have introduced a new curriculum to boost capacity of officers and one of the programmes runs for 10 days while the others for five days.

"We came up with another curriculum for the joint operations centres. We have all these officers trained at the Kenya School of Government," he said.

Nyaiyo disclosed that the Ministry working to establish a policy to regulate the critical aspect of the economy with focus on the communities around the border points to integrate them in the management system to prevent emergence of porous routes.

"But besides that, we have also come up with standard operating procedures for officers so that they can know when to collaborate, what to inspect and to verify jointly, and how to report," he said.

However, it emerged that inadequate funding to the security body cripples implementation efforts to scale up proper surveillance across the border points.

Nyaiyo appealed for more funds from the exchequer saying that with enough resources the entity "intends to establish more joint operation centres in all entry and exit points.

At the same time, he decried corruption in the system that hinders efforts to deal with smuggling of contraband goods into the country, posing health threats to the public.

Lack of coordination among tasked agencies, Nyaiyo said also contributes to the problems facing the management of the border points to avert security threats.

Currently Kenya has 35 active border points including 17 in land borders sorry, nine in air and maritime borders.

Going into the future, he revealed that the entity plans to have one-stop border post at a number of border points.

"We have done a survey of the potential possible entry and exit in the entire area. But we have been able to approve seven through the National Security Council Committee," he said.