The war on terror must shift from mere rhetoric to more action

The shameful attack on innocent worshippers at a Likoni church has seen, for the umpteenth time, the re-introduction of the state of security in our beloved country in national discourse. Such attacks are not new. Shocking of all is the morbid fascination of the perpetrating psychopaths targeting unarmed civilians in the most brutal of fashions.

Joy in Jesus Church attackers borrowed a page from this playbook by opening fire with lethal intent on a congregation, inflicting injuries and fatalities on the spiritual gathering. A mother succumbed to her serious injuries while frantically trying to shield her baby from the hail of bullets who also had a bullet lodged in his head. The reprehensible savagery, indiscriminately unleashed was without doubt purposely engineered to kill as many people as possible. My hope and prayer alongside other Kenyans of good sense, is that the surviving victims of this outrage will recover soonest and that the masterminds currently at large or so it seems, shall be brought within the orbit of the law.

Let me state matters briefly. The September 21 WestGate terrorist acts were a murderous outrage; the public massacre of tens of innocent people. They were planned with a hatefully potent sense of visual symbolism: attacking a high-end edifice; a towering symbol of ascendancy, optimism, a free market economy...Everything really that Kenya stands for in the 21st century. I don't think it's an exaggeration or a function of a mysterious obsession with journalistic hyperbole to say that the attack had a shattering effect on this nation's sense of itself in the world. It is an attack whose legacy remains unresolved to date.

The human cost of these outrages and their unnerving frequency of occurrence are mind-boggling and which continue to inspire fear in the public. As usual, in the aftermath of terror, government officials convene press conferences aimed at projecting the impression of a government on top of its brief and forestalling a public confidence crisis. As if to make a mockery of such briefings, the terrorist scares continue unabated. Take for instance the Likoni attacks which occurred within 24hrs after the interior ministry Cabinet Secretary Ole Lenku assured the country that everything was in order. In light of this distressing reality ,one is left to wonder the level of appreciation and seriousness that this problem is accorded.

I was shocked beyond belief that no heads rolled in the aftermath of the WestGate attack despite all indications pointing to serious lapses within our security system that could surely have been plugged. A public inquiry into the matter came up with a shoddy report devoid of concrete and substantive recommendations; whereupon it was rejected by parliament rendering the whole process subverted by monies from public coffers a wasteful charade. This is unacceptable and an unforgivable insult to public intelligence.

Our response to terror has been reactive rather than pre-emptive thanks to a broken and clueless intelligence machine. The NSIS despite being allocated millions of shillings has not lived up to a 21st century intelligence machine that prides itself on pre-emptive strategies. This is an area that the government must seriously focus on its determination to wage a result-oriented onslaught on terror. A robust intelligence system is the predominant reason why countries such as Israel and The U.S can boast of major successes in their respective anti-terror campaigns.

 

In my well-considered view, a culmination of prolonged cogitation, the NSIS as presently constituted must, as a matter of topmost priority, be reviewed. We require people with a deep understanding of the fast changing dynamics of terror at the helm. This can be guaranteed through the creation of a technocratic body with the express mandate of vetting prospective intelligence chiefs and officials. Such a process, if initiated could bolster the nation's intelligence gathering capablity. It would mean increasing our anti-terror war chest by bolstering the budgetary allocations directed towards training security officials and ensuring that they have the equipment to fight this menace.

Immigration officials must be put to task to ensure that people with questionable characters don't gain access to Kenya. The filth in our immigration system perpetrated by corrupt officials who take bribes must be cleaned up. The EACC must swing into full action by investigating the bad apples and recommending them for prosecution. Constant cross-border must be conducted to prevent terrorist from gaining access to Kenya through our porous borders. This calls for agreements with countries with which we share borders.

How to boast the morale of police officers is an issue that has confronted successive regimes and remains unresolved to date. Political will on this critical issue has been as minimal as ever and no government has demonstrated the tangible will and courage to clinch it and bring it to closure once and for all. The reality of police leaving in squalid conditions and being poorly remunerated is all too familiar rendering them susceptible to corruption. It is not an overstatement to state that terrorist could very well exploit this distressing reality by bribing the men in blue. A police service commission mired in incessant turf wars with the IG cannot deliver on its mandate with the efficacy required from it. Johnstone Kavuludi and Kimaiyo must therefore abandon their power struggles to lynch this monster.

In the final analysis, the war on terror isn't about superficial tough talk but taking concrete and well-coordinated steps to roll back the spectre of insecurity and terrorism that continues to haunt our beloved country. Terrorism incidences have been unnervingly frequent and thanks to this unflattering reality lives have been lost, dreams shattered, bodies maimed...Development are meaningless in the context and climate of such scares. We have no choice but to get our house in order.