Political intrigues to blame for insecurity in Kenya

NAIROBI: The Garissa University College terror attack hit us where it hurts most and we must urgently review our tactics when it come to fighting terrorism. We must make bold decisions and laws to secure our nation from terrorists.

Only a few months ago, the Jubilee administration set out to seal legal loopholes in the fight against terror through publication of the Security Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2014.

The loopholes had been meticulously identified and reasoned out by technocrats who had the benefit of fighting terror under obsolete laws that abetted terrorism rather than stymied it. These are laws that were easily exploited by promoters of terrorism to further hurt Kenyans.

In good faith, the laws provided for lawful revocation of identity cards issued fraudulently, record-keeping by landlords of their tenants, zoning of land adjacent to aerodromes and restriction of refugees to refugee camps.

The laws restricted the number of asylum seekers permitted to stay in Kenya to 150,000, demanded provision of "specific, actionable and timely" intelligence from our National Intelligence Service and criminalised radicalisation as well as travel to designated terrorist training countries.

"Each police station shall require all hotels and other establishments offering accommodation facilities to maintain a record of all guests within their facilities indicating name, ID number, sex, telephone address, email and any unique character obtaining to such guests," Section 106 of the laws said.

Other provisions related to handling of evidence in terror-related investigations, handling of terror suspects, raising integrity thresholds in security agencies, the process of charging suspects in court and reduction of inefficiency in security arms.

Despite the well-meaning nature of these amendments, the background research that informed their identification, the urgency of the matter and utilitarian benefits promised, they were exposed to our usual political intrigues, treachery and conmanship.

The Opposition, CORD, and a host of pseudo-human rights activists and conniving State officers engaged in a propaganda against the security laws. The contrived acrimony in which the laws were passed in Parliament, and the legal challenges thrown into the mix, presented a state of confusion to the implementers of the law.

A good deal of these well-meaning provisions were dropped to appease various groups while others were quashed by the courts at the insistence of the Opposition. The lucky clauses that survived the campaign were nevertheless blemished for good by the negative energy surrounding their passage.

In the meantime, our enemies - whom we had in mind while crafting the laws - were watching and baying.

Like vultures, they closed in on us when we least expected it and inflicted mortal wounds on us through the barbaric Garissa University attack, which shocked the world. In one swoop, Kenya lost 148 lives to these bloodthirsty terrorists.

Stung by the barbarity of the attack, the Opposition, which frustrated the passage of laws that could have prevented or mitigated such an attack, turned round to condemn the attack, console victims and pronounce support for the Government in the anti-terror war.

I agree it is not time for blame games. I also welcome and appreciate the Opposition's support for the Government in these tough times.

But while the support is most welcome, it will never be forgotten that they frustrated Government efforts to prevent these deaths through the security laws.

Let it be put on record that they stymied the process through which the country was to be properly secured from the fangs of terror.

One can either support or not support. There cannot be any middle ground on this. To purport to be supporting and not supporting at the same time is to entertain mental contradiction.