from: joachim omolo ouko
News Dispatch with Father Omolo Beste
TUESDAY, JUNE 17, 2014
Sura mbili writes via Facebook: “How can 50 armed terrorists on foot, hijack two matatu vehicles and take hostage a busy town centre for more than four hours, leaving about 50 people dead, trailing a huge destruction of property worth billions of shillings without any information being leaked in by our intelligence organs?.
For how long are we going to allow this to happen? I have said in this page that the government must overhaul our intelligence network. The government must start its intelligence from the village level and cut any bureaucracy in between. The president should be able to get all the information on intelligence from the village level through our intelligence network and which is not happening.
The president must have his private intelligence which apart from national intelligence, is trusted with state security intelligence. This organ will be trusted with all other security intelligence for clarity. Currently we are being fed with unconfirmed intelligence information, which sometimes is not reliable.
Let us wake up to reality that terrorism is here with us and find ways of improving our intelligence networks to conform with the current trends of terrorists. Politicians should stop this nonsense of blaming one another”.
Although this is a good advice to President Uhuru Kenyatta and his government Sura mbili, there are numerous reasons why Uhuru will not allow this to happen. One of the reasons is what I answered in September 27, 2013-click here WHY PRESIDENT UHURU WON’T SACK NIS to read more.
http://blog.jaluo.com/?p=36036
This was an response to NARC Kenya chairperson, Martha Karua who had said that it would be impossible for President Uhuru Kenyatta to sack NIS boss Michael Gichangi, not only because he was appointed on basis of tribal, but because Gichangi is his confidante.
Karua sensationally said President Uhuru Kenyatta and National Intelligence Service (NIS) boss, Brigadier Michael Gichangi, are incompetent on how they have handled country’s security matters especially Saturday’s Westgate terror attack.
On her twitter account, Karua put blame on the NIS head over the deteriorating security in the country, saying that if the NIS was active and competent, Westgate’s terrorists attack could have been prevented from happening.
Like Karua, members of the National Assembly had also accused the National Intelligence Service of laxity, saying the agency’s director General Michael Gichangi has failed to lead from the front.
Political analyst, Mutahi Ngunyi looked at it differently. He wanted Kenyatta, not only to fire Gichangi, but also Chief of General Staff, General Julius Karangi and Interior Ministry Cabinet Secretary, Joseph Ole Lenku for their incompetence over Westgate Mall’s terrorist attack.
Sura mbili, it might be easy for Jubilee government to deny, but the fact is and remains that Kenya’s security agencies are covertly politicized and as a result overtly ethnicized. That is why all security agencies do not pass the minimum test of Article 232 of the Constitution on Values and Principles of Public Service.
If you Uhuru was genuinely against terrorism, then he must of essence return the National Police Service (Amendment) Bill, 2014 to the National Assembly for further re-alignment in line with Article 2(1)(3) of the Constitution. That is also why the “Nyumba Kumi” concept is not effective.
It is also why, even though on November 7, 2013 Uhuru told corrupt senior officers in his office to either resign or be sacked, that has not happen because of politics. Uhuru knew and worked with them during his time at the Treasury when he was the minister of Finance.
That is why no senior officer has resigned or been sacked from his office. It is also why he won’t focus onto overall police productivity in terms of crime detection, response and management, despite the fact that there is need for urgent changes to police workforce policies and practices to assist police officers to respond more effectively to the challenges the government faces currently.
If it were not because of politics Uhru would have attained a police service that embraces successful initiatives and addresses gaps in the modernization agenda to be developed. Otherwise he would have spent whatever it takes, hire and fire high level security leaders without favour or fear.
Had it not because of politics, Uhuru would have created a new security agency, whose job would be to patrol and secure the national borders and its officers deployed in counties that are close to borders.
The President would also stick to his promise that he would expand the National Police Service by hiring 15,000 police officers every year over the next five years. These officers would be given modern equipment to combat crime.
It is not enough to allocate sufficient security budgets if this was not accompanied with transparency, eliminate wastage and guarantee quality and value for public funds. If this money is not looted it would create a command that would ensure all security agencies work together and to “establish functional linkages through training and command structure of various disciplines of the armed forces.
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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