From: joachim omolo ouko
News Dispatch with Father Omolo Beste
MONDAY, JUNE 9, 2014
Dennis from Nairobi writes: “Father Beste, why the hype about the CCTVs it is laughable, that in the advert the footages from the Westgate attack is used, what does it mean? CCTVs were at Westgate but it was still attacked.
All it serves often is historical like audit, and for terror acts the damage will have been done in a big way, for crimes yes it may be useful tracking the perpetrators. Let us differentiate the two that is crime and terrorism.
The later is backed well resource wise and the perpetrators are ready to die and like Obama put it suicide has become a weapon, so you may see the footages but the damage from terrorists will have been done”.
This is a valid argument Dennis. Although Jubilee government hopes placing closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras around some of the targeted areas by terrorists could provide them the clues they’re desperately looking for, as you have properly said these cameras were placed in Westgate Mall but could not enable the government trace the terrorists.
The CCTV showed clearly how one man cowered in front of a cashier desk, but he is immediately spotted by one of the terrorists who shot him at close-range and walked away. Sprawled out in a pool of blood on the shop floor, the man desperately tries to gather the strength to crawl away to safety.
He drags himself up to a sitting position, but falls back on to the tiled flooring. The gunman soon returns and shows the terrified man no mercy, shooting him again. In total at least 67 people died in the September siege – the chilling video clips obtained by the news outlet show just the first day of the bloody massacre.
In another surveillance video the British four-year-old who famously told one of the terrorists that he was a ‘very bad man’ could be seen clearly with his mother and six-year-old sister. His mother, a film producer, had been queuing to buy milk when the militants struck.
She hid under a cold meat counter in the Nakumatt supermarket for an hour-and-a-half with her children beneath her before terrorists finally found them and shot her in the thigh. The trio is shown walking through the supermarket – the mother is pushing an injured child in a trolley.
They are followed by a terrified teenage girl wearing a white top stained with blood, who is walking along with her hands up in the air. Behind them a gunman, brandishing an assault rifle, gestures the way. Bizarrely, the terrorists handed the children Mars bars before they fled. The woman, the children and girl were all eventually released.
Another clip showed the terrorists scouting out a supermarket while chatting on their mobile phones. Al-Shabaab said it remained in contact with the attackers as they battled Kenyan forces during the hostage crisis. At one point it looks as though one of the terrorists is looking for surveillance cameras. The attackers appeared relaxed in several clips – in one quiet period they are even seen taking turns for prayer time.
With this brief background we can categorically say that security cameras cannot help prevent terrorist attacks because once they hit they disappear. You will see them alright, but you will not help since they would have already killed.
Terrorists do not care whether they are caught or not. Again as you have said even in USA CCTV cameras can’t stop terrorist attack. Cameras did not protect against the Boston Bombings. Like Westgate Mall, it only helped catch the perpetrators after the attack. Someone bent on terror does not care about being identified.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel was one of the first to demand more cameras in response to the Boston Bombings. New York Republican Rep. Peter King also called for increased CCTV in urban areas.
New York has 3,000 security cameras in Lower Manhattan alone. London leads the world in its surveillance of residents with 500,000 CCTV cameras in London alone. All these have not prevented terrorists from attacks.
Leave alone CCTV, Kenya’s lead counter-terrorism agency received $735 to spend in March. The force is allocated $2,205 quarterly for its operations – for maintenance and fuel for cars, travel expenses and office supplies – in January, February and March, yet this did not stop terrorists from attacks.
The allocation of money was aimed at counterterrorism agency to stop another Westgate Mall-style terrorist attack. This is despite the fact that Kenya is one of the top five global recipients of State Department antiterrorism funding.
In fiscal year 2013 a US-Kenyan law enforcement cooperation program known as the Diplomatic Security Antiterrorism Assistance program had a budget of $7.75 million, which is divided among multiple security services in Kenya and goes toward training and equipment.
The Anti-Terror Police Unit was formed in 2003 shortly after Al Qaeda in 2002 bombed an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa, killing more than a dozen people, while also nearly simultaneously attempting to bring down an Israeli plane taking off at Mombasa International Airport.
Those attacks took place four years after Al Qaeda orchestrated the bombing of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing 224 people, including a dozen Americans.
The proposed Ksh 15 billion CCTV cameras is coming at a time Kenya’s economy is likely to expand 5.8 percent in 2014 after below-target growth of 5.1 percent last year, the Ministry of Finance said on Wednesday.
The economy faces risks such as weak growth in advanced economies that could affect exports and tourism, as well as public spending pressures such as public sector wages and interest rate payments.
The budget deficit in the fiscal year starting in July is likely to be 5.9 percent of gross domestic product, down from 7.9 percent targeted in the current year to the end of June. Government spending in 2014/2015 is projected at 1.52 trillion shillings – or 32.9 percent of GDP – from a previously forecast 1.47 trillion shillings.
Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
Tel +254 7350 14559/+254 722 623 578
E-mail obolobeste@gmail.com
Omolo_ouko@outlook.com
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