Senators call for shake-up of top organs as insecurity rises

By MOSES NJAGIH

Kenya: Senators have urged President Uhuru Kenyatta to reshuffle top security organs, saying there was a major breakdown in the fight against insecurity in the country.

The House suspended normal proceedings to debate the insecurity in Marsabit County, breaking political barriers in urging the Head of State to crack the whip and move security heads, who they said had proved to be incompetent in handling their docket.

“We must remind the President that the buck must stop somewhere, and that as the Head of State he must take responsibility. Even us who are in Jubilee must be bold and tell him that he must act now,” said nominated Senator Martha Wangari.

The senator urged the President to take drastic measures and replace the leadership of security organs, saying they must take responsibility for their failures to contain the spiraling cases of insecurity.

 “I have stood on this floor to defend the government as chairman of the Committee on Security but today I must say that I am ashamed. Our security forces have abdicated their responsibilities and things are now very worrying,” said Garissa Senator Yusuf Haji.

Mandera Senator Billow Kerrow said that President Uhuru’s administration had scored poorly in combating crime, saying that the people manning the security docket were incompetent in handling the matters.

“There is no need to beat around the bush. We must say loudly that this government has failed to provide security. We must now shy away from saying that there are people in office who are incompetent to offer security,” he said.

“You cannot have incompetent people in office at the expense of the security of Kenyans. It’s not about changing laws and other theories, it’s about removing people from office who have failed, starting with the Inspector General (of Police) and the PS,” Kerrow said.

Nominated Senator Naisula Lesuuda said it was worrying that insecurity was being witnessed in every corner of the country, with little being done by security officers to contain it.

“It is time the situation got sorted by those responsible for the duty once and for all, or we are informed to go tell our people to sort themselves out. We do not want to be told of plans that are there, we want to see action and results now,” she said.

Moving the adjournment motion to discuss the matter, Marsabit Senator Hargura Godana said that communities in his counties were now moving to neighbouring Ethiopia at night for fear of being attacked during the inter-community fights.

Insecurity issues

“It is sad that Kenyans are finding it secure to live in a foreign country as opposed to their homeland. We feel the police have left us on our own to sort our insecurity issues,” said Godana.

He said there are reports from the ground that warring communities are now arming themselves.

Siaya Senator James Orengo claimed that the fighting in Marsabit was politically motivated, spilling over from the outcome of the last General Election.

“There is a political agenda to bring down the county government there. We should not be ashamed of saying this. Situations have come up where some people think the governor and his government must be brought down,” said Orengo.

Majority Chief Whip Beatrice Elachi circulated photographs of a local MP overseeing the torching of a lorry in the area and querying why he was not arrested over the skirmishes.