Looting! That word is being spoken again
in the same breath as the heroes who wear uniform and go rushing in
where angels fear to tread.
Somehow, millions of
shillings in cash and property were stolen in the hours when only the
security forces and humanitarian workers could access the Westgate
Shopping Mall during last week’s attack on it.
Police
were first accused of looting, as well as murder and gang rape, in the
report by the Commission of Inquiry into the Post-Election Violence in
2008.
The ethos of looting – and general criminality
-- has remained a large part of the anatomy of the police service,
evident in extra-judicial executions, torture and extortion. It survives
to date because all efforts to reform the police for decades have been
taken captive.
Public anger stemming from the Westgate tragedy has been cleverly directed at Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Ole Lenku.
His
penchant for sucking on his big toe has made it easy for the media to
fry him, salt and serve him to the public as a misplaced incompetent.
Yet,
a security minister is only as good as the forces he leads. If Ole
Lenku’s statements are inaccurate, or even misspoken, it is not because
he went into the Westgate Mall and counted the hostages.
It
is not because he chose bombardment over storming, or arrested any of
the terrorists. It is not because he ordered the Kenya Defence Forces to
take charge. He looks bad because he is deliberately being fed
information designed to make him appear foolish.
These
games are the pastime of securocrats who believe that they run the
country and should not be subject to civilian authority or oversight. It
is the same cabal that is more interested in collecting takings from
transport operators than enforcing the traffic law.
It
is the same column that derives pleasure from gunning down suspects
rather than arresting them to collect information. It is the cover-up
squad, and it has been in charge of the security services in spite of
all the efforts at reform.
This axis often resorts to
blackmail and threats when confronted – as was the case when public
debate raged last year on appointing a civilian to head the police
service, or in the recent contestations about where to locate certain
powers between the Inspector-General of Police and the National Police
Service Commission.
Doubtless, there are heroes in the
police service. There are valiant men and women in the defence forces,
and there are patriots in the intelligence services, but they are not in
charge. Their voice has been muted by those who look at the
Constitution and the law as mere decorations to festoon office cabinets.
If Kenya wants real security, it should allow the
greenhorn, unsure and inarticulate Joseph Ole Lenku to lead reform of
the security services by breaking down their rationale to one thing:
We
do not care for the complexity of what they do, we just want our
country safe. If there was ever an outsider with no interest in buying
security equipment and supply contracts, it appears President Uhuru
Kenyatta has indeed already found the right man.
kwamchetsi@formandcontent.co.ke, Twitter handle: @kwamchetsi
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