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Monday, September 30, 2013

By Kwamchetsi Makokha
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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