Ill Equipped For A Tough War!

Police officers patrol the dangerous Kenya-Somali border on foot and earn a meagre monthly hardship allowance of Ksh 600, which translates to a paltry Ksh 20 a day! There are no vehicles for patrol. To them, corruption is an option and even Al-Shabab operatives confessed to a Kenyan journalist that they know how to best deal with the Kenyan police officers! Your guess is as good as mine; they bribe our officers who are pushed into the vice by the near impossible living and working conditions in the counties neighboring Somalia, especially Mandera! KTN’s Asha Mwilu unearthed all these in her investigative story, ‘’Terror Crossing’’. Other investigative pieces on K24 have painted grim pictures of our tactics in this war.

Now we have insights into how the government has slept on the job, much to the delight of the terrorists! Barely a month ago, 147 innocent Kenyans were slaughtered in the second deadliest terrorist attack on Kenya, since the August 7, 1998 Nairobi bombings. Such is the devastation that Al-Shabab are visiting on our country. Sadly, our government does not seem to get it right. Since we set our military boots into Somalia in the famous ‘Operation Linda Nchi’, we started a long and vicious yet justified war on terror. But maybe we left our backs exposed! Did we secure our borders well enough to thwart off revenge attacks on our soil? Perhaps not, as recent attacks have shown. Westgate, Mandera 1 and 2, Mpeketoni and now Garissa come into mind.

Our Kenya-Somalia border is porous. The terrorists and their sympathizers freely cross into and out of the country. More chilling is the fact that the terrorists and their sympathizers can bribe their way into the country. They have seen an opportunity in our poorly equipped and ill- remunerated police officers charged with securing this volatile border. Corruption is not justifiable. But poorly remunerated police officers are vulnerable to the vice, just like any other Kenyan. At night they too, take cover from the very dangers that they are supposed to shield us from; terrorism.

Corruption has permeated into our security systems and the happenings at the Somalia border are a proof. Police officers are poorly remunerated and basically lack the much needed positive motivation to effectively discharge their duties. On the other hand, the terrorists are so willing to die and possess deadly arms. Add this to the fact that they got families to take care of and you cannot imagine how tough it is being in their shoes, yet they are supposed to protect us from these barbaric terrorists!

Instead of using the Dadaab Refugee Camp as a scapegoat in this war, the government should correct the loopholes in its systems. Equip the police officers adequately, pay them well and reduce their vulnerability to corruption. Take up the border security as a serious issue enough to demand the presence of our military and police service.  Back into our borders, all citizens should embrace the war on a common enemy. We cannot deny that radicalization is swallowing up our youths and that terrorist elements live amongst us. The enemy is within as much as is from outside our borders.

We can still fight Al-Shabab from within our borders and thus our military men and women can greatly help secure our borderline with Somalia. Have we ever thought of relocating our military barracks to the borders instead of Nairobi where they serve no purpose?

As a nation, we have a long way to go in winning the fight on terror. We need to re-think and re-strategize, otherwise it is foolhardy to do things the same way that has failed us yet expect us to win. We have a porous border, poorly remunerated and ill-equipped police officers manning our borders, corruption is rife along these borders and terrorists have a field day crossing into the country. The citizens participation in this war is wanting too! Radicalization is real in the country. Yet to all these, we have turned a blind eye. Do we still expect to defeat Al-Shabab with all these loopholes?

Poor Response to the terrorist attack at Garissa University College

The response to the Thursday terror attack on Garissa University College was at best botched and horribly so. The Sunday Nation newspaper (April 5, 2015) reveals the shameful and shambolic way through which the Kenyan government handled the 15-hour siege on the campus, about 300km from Nairobi.

The militants rang the first shots at around 5:30 am, as some students slept, others were getting ready for their day’s Cats while some were in the morning prayers. In a well-orchestrated attack that was to last a grueling 15 hours as hapless and horrified students were butchered brutally. Those lucky to escape will forever count their lucky stars. But the manner of response from our security organs has left a lot to be desired and had it been better then, we could not have lost 147 brains.

Thirty minutes into the attack, an alarm was sounded at the Ruiru Recce Company base and the elite officers got ready. However, due to lack of a helicopter to take them to Garissa, they were still stranded at Wilson Airport and left at 12: 30 p.m., aboard Kenya Police Airwing-5YGSU and 5YPOL. They could not fit in with their equipment and a team had left by road! They got to Garissa and were briefed for two hours. During this time, the militants had enough time to taunt the students, make calls to their families and friends before their bullets sniffed lives out of the students.

Cabinet Secretary Nkaissery and Inspector-General of Police Wilson Boinnet flew to Garissa way ahead of the elite Recce Squad! Could the forces have used this chopper and gotten there earlier to save our fellow Kenyans? Why is it that our Recce Squad had to wait for seven hours due to the lack of a chopper? Why were the elite officers not ferried there using our military choppers and land there maybe before 7 am? Was CS Nkaissery and IG Boinnet going to rescue our students trapped in the siege and that is why they boarded a chopper to Garissa instead of letting the Recce Unit go there first? Why was the government’s response to an emergency so pathetic and shameful? Do we lack a police or military chopper on stand-by to respond to such emergency situations like what happened in Garissa? How could the Recce team get to Garissa seven hours late, yet be briefed for  a whole two hours on a situation that was so dire and they got the expertise to rescue it? Where is the moral responsibility of our government in such a slow response to a situation that could otherwise have been salvaged and so many students rescued?

As our government treats us to such shameful response to its own citizens being slaughtered, we must laud the Recce Squad who took less than an hour to subdue the militants, killed them and prevented more loss of lives. But the militants struck at 5:30 am and yet our Recce Squad launched its offensive at 5 pm? Soldiers from the nearby Garissa Barracks and regular police had been battling the militants. We all know that they are not trained to deal with such situations and maybe that is why the militants had a field-day killing 147 students, until Recce came in.

Just as it happened in the Westgate attack, the response to the terror attack on Garissa University College was a botched one. Disorganization, lack of priorities and maybe a blatant disregard for human life by our government is what happened. Had Recce Squad been flown to the college within an hour of the attack, then we could not have lost 147 students. The government responded late, the Recce Squad did not have a chopper to fly them to the scene on time, CS Nkaissery and IG Boinnet got there even before Recce did and yes, it was a pathetic response.

We did not learn from the Mpeketoni, Baragoi and Westgate attacks. Haphazard and pathetic response describes the government.  As the families, friends and relatives of the 147 slain souls mourn and grieve, let Kenyans know that a timely and more organized response by our government should have prevented such a great and horrible loss. What our government does best is to woefully admit that Al-Shabab got them by surprise. We are losing too much to Al-Shabab and unless the government changes its tacts, then these terrorists will make Kenya their play-ground.

As a country, we are slowly but surely getting numbed by death. It no longer bothers us a lot, despite seeing our Kenyans mourn their loved ones.  Let not the 147 souls of Garissa University College go in vain. Let the government stop this pathetic and shambolic way of handling these grave matters of terror.