A former intelligence officer has criticised musician Bahati for forcing President Uhuru Kenyatta off his seat during the launch of Jubilee Party on Saturday.
Esau Kioni, a security consultant on VIP protection and adviser to former President Mwai Kibaki, termed the artiste’s action a breach of the President’s security.
Mr Kioni also said the singer’s actions amounted to disrespect for the Head of State and questioned why the presidential security detail failed to respond.
During the event at Kasarani Stadium in Nairobi, Bahati took Uhuru’s hand and literally forced him to stand up before sitting on it as he sang to First Lady Margaret Kenyatta, who was sitting next to the President.
“The security team should have acted because that was a security breach. VIP security is not something to take for granted and if anything happened to the President, they would be answerable,” said Kioni.
He said the fact that the President’s security team failed to act proved they would not have secured the President if it had been an attack.
“The young man also harassed the First Lady and the Deputy Vice President’s wife Rachel in total disregard for their maturity and status in the country. What we witnessed was very embarrassing,” Kioni added.
He also said it is wrong for the President and his deputy to keep travelling together during public events.
“This is a serious security lapse. Top VIPs should not travel together as that makes it easy to attack them by centralising the target,” Kioni added.
