We were too slow in evacuating Kenyans trapped in Juba

One of the most irritating things about foreign governments, at least to us Kenyans on Twitter (KoT) and in government, is the alacrity of the West to issue travel advisories against our country. Even when we, in our oh-so-patriotic eyes see no sign of trouble, the US and European countries still gleefully advise their people to come here only when it is very necessary. The advisories kill our tourism industry, deny our youth much-needed jobs and ruin our otherwise fast-expanding economy. Never mind that at one point in 2014, we were still crowing economic sabotage when Al-Shabaab attacked Mpeketoni.

Okay, hold your horses, I am Kenyan and as patriotic as they come, but I think we need to be a bit objective on matters security. First, if someone tells you that some people are preparing to attack your family, I think the first thing to do, before protesting that they are jealous because you have a beautiful wife, is to find out the details.

The next step should be to get ready just in case the messenger does not have avocado soup for brains. Then, if a year passes and nothing has happened, you can now demand to be told what the prank was all about!

I do not doubt the ability of our forces to secure the country, but we all know on several occasions even local intelligence warnings have  been brushed aside in blunders that have caused us lots of tears and grief. Our cavalier attitude to citizens’ security became evident after the July 7 eruption of civil war in South Sudan. Two days later, on Saturday July 9, the Kenya Long Distance Truck Drivers and Allied Workers Union announced that at least 15 Kenyan truck drivers and six from Uganda were shot dead near Jebel town in South Sudan on their way from Juba. Eight others, the union said, could not be accounted for.

One would have expected that Kenya would be the first to evacuate its citizens from the country, at least given the proximity of the country to Juba. But in a most baffling turn of events, the UK, Germany, Japan, India and Italy managed to get their citizens out of South Sudan, where more than 300 people were reportedly killed and 42,000 displaced. Actually, almost two weeks later, Uganda did well to evacuate more than 21,000 East Africans, Kenyans and Rwandans among them.

On Friday, July 15, The Standard ran a story of Kenyans with relatives in Juba pleading for the Government’s help, a week after the first reports of violence emerged. And while the following day over 100 were rescued, this was not the speed one would have expected of a country closing refugee camps ostensibly to protect its citizens from terrorists. 

Let us for now cast aside the fact that all this while, Kenya’s policy on South Sudan has been the subject of debate, with some blaming us for hosting President Salva Kiir’s and Vice President Riek Machar as their troops massacred each other back home. Criticism of travel advisories and closure of refugee camps were no doubt tough decisions we had to make as a country, but we have nevertheless been outstanding in our lack of consistency.

Why rush to seal refugee camp security loopholes and drag our feet to rescue our own from blood-letting in South Sudan?

As Kenyans were cowering under a fusillade of ricocheting bullets, sending WhatsApp messages to scared relatives back home, the Government was at the UN conference at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre. There was greater focus on the conference than on the plight of Kenyans stranded in Juba.

Even as we pillory the West for being overly protective over their citizens to the extent that they ruin our economy, we also must not be too casual about our own citizens lives that we forget the first job of the government is to protect its people and their property.