VIP security: Why US doesn't leave anything to chance whenever top officials go abroad

US Secret Service agents disembark Executive One Foxtrot at the JKIA, February 24, 2023. US presidents, political leaders and their families are protected by the US Secret Service. [Kelly Ayodi, Standard]

President George W Bush launched a massive war against terror, attacking countries and installations 'suspected' to be harbouring terrorists. Anger and fury mounted against the US, its allies and interests globally. The Bush administration succeeded in violently removing Iraqi President Saddam Hussein from power and having him killed. The purge, however, threw Iraq and the middle east into bloody chaos.

In his memoir, A Promised Land, Barack Obama says that in "disbanding the Iraqi military and allowing the Shiite majority to aggressively remove large numbers of Sunni Muslims from government positions, US officials had created a situation that was chaotic and increasingly perilous - a sectarian conflict marked by escalating suicide assaults, road side explosions and car bombs detonating on crowded market streets." Obama was the first black president of the US.

Before becoming president in 2008, Obama flew to Iraq where the US war on terror had turned ugly. He saw miserable, and impoverished children, many orphaned by the invasion. "I couldn't shake the thought of those kids paying the price for the arrogance of men like Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, who'd rushed us into war based on faulty information and refused to consider the consequences."

Person of interest

It is against this backdrop of global insecurity, that Dr Jill Biden, wife of US President Joe Biden, is visiting Kenya. To the global terrorist network, she is a person of interest; a gem; even a trophy! The White House says the First Lady's visit to Kenya and Namibia will strengthen US relations with African nations and advance US shared interests on the continent. At the 2022 US Africa Leaders' Summit, Jill hosted a two-day spousal programme. During her visit to Africa, Jill's "engagements will focus on empowerment of women and youth, food security and shared democratic values".

Jill said on her Twitter handle before her departure; "Today, I am heading to Africa for my sixth visit to the continent, and my first as First Lady. I've always, believed that supporting women and youth across the world is critical to our common future with education, health, and empowerment at the heart of it all."

Before her visit, Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) announced closure of Terminal Two. Security at the airport was heightened. In a statement to the public, the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) said that: "Terminal Two should be cleared of any aircraft and vehicles on Friday February 24, 2023 as from 11am and 5pm hours local time.

Again, on Sunday February 26, 2023, from 6am to 6pm local time. This is therefore to advise you to relocate your operations to terminal one within the stipulated time period to allow smooth facilitation of the VVIP and operations." I smiled when I read the KAA statement. I recalled the 2018 visit to Kenya by US President Barack Obama. I had tea with a top security aide of President Uhuru Kenyatta. The discussion slipped on to the impending Obama visit.

US Secret Service detailing Jill Biden and Rachel Ruto's security at the JKIA on February 24, 2023. [Kelly Ayodi, Standard]

Then on March 30 1981, President Ronald Reagan, was shot and wounded. He was returning to his limousine after a speaking engagement at the Washington Hilton when one John Hinckley Jr, shot him. The bullet from a pistol ricocheted off the side of the limousine and hit him in the left underarm. It broke a rib, punctured a lung and suffered internal bleeding. By the time they took him to George Washington University Hospital, he was close to death. After the first three assassinations, the US Congress assigned the Secret Service, the responsibility for the safety of the President. The Secret Service protects; past, present and future presidents, vice presidents and their families.

US security is enhanced especially in countries considered to be prone to terrorist attacks. Kenya is one such country. In Kenya, homes of VIPs and Cabinet Secretaries are broken into almost at will. Gangsters walk into these tightly secured homes, ransack rooms, steal and injure family members with ease. With corruption and porous borders, with our inability to tame violence and crime across the country, with bandits who have made the killing security personnel a hobby running wild, who can trust us with the life and security of the wife of POTUS?

Jill Biden's visit and the security inconvenience it will cause some Kenyans, is an indictment on our security failures. It should offer lessons on improvements we must make. Just like Kalonzo, Obama's life changed when he was elected in 2008. He says in, A Promised Land, that his life and that of his family changed when he was declared President elect.

"Back home in Chicago, our lives had shifted sharply. In our house, things didn't feel so different, with mornings spent fixing breakfast and getting the girls ready for school, returning phone calls and talking to staffers. But once any of us stepped outside, it was a new world. Camera crews were stationed at the corner, behind recently erected concrete barriers. Secret Service counter sniper teams, clad in black, stood watch on rooftops. A visit to Marty and Anita's house, just a few blocks away, became a major endeavour; a trip to my old gym was now out of the question. ...All my entries and exits into buildings happened through loading docks and service elevators, cleared of everyone but a few security guards. It felt as if I now lived in my own portable perpetual ghost town."

Executive One Foxtrot. The military plane carries members of the "First Family", but not the President themself. [Kelly Ayodi, Standard]

Then, there is the Airforce One, the Flying White House. It is the airborne global command centre. A spectacular and specialised Boeing 747. From this plane, the president and his staff can govern the country from the air. The Airforce One stands as tall as a six-storey-building and as long as a football field. It is a monument of American pride. There is a primary and back up Jumbo jet. There is a section that carries an array of; sensitive and secret features, radio and radar jamming, broad frequencies, sensors to track attacks from cyber space, and heat seeking missiles.

Home comfort

Airforce One, flies with four crew members; the pilot, co-pilot, an engineer and a navigator. It has a private airborne apartment with all the home comfort. It also has a presidential suite with two beds. To transport the president to the airport, is Presidential Helicopter Marine One which also operates with a twin. All runways are closed to Marine One whenever it lands. Airforce One carries the full White House team; the political and diplomatic, military attaches and the press. It has a sound proof conference room and the president's office.

Obama humorously observes that; "I discovered that whenever the Secret Service agents whispered into their wrist microphones, they were broadcasting my movements over a staff monitored radio channel. "Renegade heading to residence" or "Renegade to Situation Room" or "Renegade to Secondary Hold," which was their discreet way of saying I was going to the bathroom."

The US has invested millions of dollars into personnel and systems to secure its leaders and citizens. As the US first lady tours Kenya, the superpower must take control of certain aspects of our communication and transport. There are thousands of individuals around the world who would do anything to harm the US first lady just to score some political point.