Presidential safety: Questions security team must answer

President Ruto after laying the foundation stone for the Makupa mixed use development market in Mvita constituency, Mombasa County, on May 25, 2026. [PCS]

Flashback. 21st May 1991, Tamil Prinadu, India. A large crowd had gathered to welcome India’s Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi into a planned re-election campaign rally.

Gandhi, was welcomed by a rapturous crowd. Unknown to his security detail, one of those queuing to greet the Prime Minister was a female suicide bomber and a member of the Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) operating from Sri Lanka.

Unhappy with Gandhi’s decision to send a peace keeping mission to their war-torn country, the rebels resolved to kill the Prime Minister to thwart his re-lection bid.

They knew he was to attend the meeting and carefully studied flaws in his security team. A female suicide bomber was identified, trained and armed with a RDX suicide belt strapped round her waist and concealed by a flowing beautiful dress.

Dramatic pictures extracted from the TIMES OF INDIA showed a tall woman and a colleague carrying flowers and a scarf as a gift for Gandhi.

Her role was to step forward, smile at the premier and garland and hug him as her daredevil colleague moved forward to detonate the deadly device.

The explosion killed Gandhi and 14 others including the LTTE volunteers.

Rajiv, 40, had taken over from her mother, the late Indira Gandhi who was also assassinated in 1984 by her own security officers. A sad tale of an embarrassing state security lapse.

A leap forward to May 24, 2026, Kilifi, Kenya. President William Ruto is addressing a crowd inside a giant tent. Just like Gandhi, he is upbeat and is campaigning for re-election in a highly charged political landscape.

Then a man, holding what looked like a bible, breaks a security barrier (was there really one in place) and reaches the President. He appears to be whispering to him while hugging him at the same time. Security men burst onto the stage to wrestle him down but he clings to the puzzled President, almost going down with him. A scaring of drama.

As a senior journalist, I covered many presidential functions from Daniel arap Moi, Mwai Kibaki and Uhuru Kenyatta and never witnessed the security scares I am witnessing now.

Why compare the India of 1984 with Kenya?

Just like Rajiv, President Ruto appears to have been exposed as he visited Kilifi, a county not far from the dreaded Al-Shaabab infested Boni forest. What if the intruder had a knife or a bomb or grenade hidden in his trousers? What if the object he shoved on Ruto’s face and which looked like a bible was actually an explosive.

The Kilifi incident was not an isolated case. We have watched at least four other serious security breaches on the President.

What worried me about the Kilifi scare is that I never saw the President’s Aide-de-Camp (ADC). If he was present, where was he seated? Maybe his presence and proximity to the President could have scared intruders.

The changes in the Presidential Escort unit is welcome but is it the solution? Will it cure the lapses? The breaches either meant that somebody or some people did not do their duties as expected or they are institutional gaffes beyond the grasp of the officers.

It is encouraging that the Inspector General of Police Douglas Kanja has also appointed a team to investigate the many security lapses around the presidency.

Kenyans expect answers from Kanja and his team. This is because every time a stranger accosts the President, the matter is often played down and buried under the carpet,

—The writer is a communications consultant