Westgate attack a reminder of need to reform security sector

By Ken Opalo

Great statesmen do not let tragedies go to waste. Instead they harness the emotional outpouring that usually accompanies tragedies to redefine the goals and aspirations of their countries. The ghastly terrorist attack at Westgate a week ago is one of those great tragedies that ought to spur us, as a nation, into action to ensure that something like this never happens again. As we mourn the dead, including our valiant officers who paid the ultimate price, we must do all in our capacity to ensure that their deaths were not in vain. Our leaders, in particular, should ensure that the display of patriotism and devotion to country that has been witnessed over the last week does not dissipate away.

Perhaps the most important lesson from last Saturday’s tragedy is what it revealed about who we are as a people. From rescue operations in the first few minutes after the attack started to the long blood donation lines that snaked through Uhuru Park, Kenyans from all backgrounds, regardless of race, ethnicity or creed, came together to help one another. All that mattered was that someone had attacked us, and spilled our people’s blood in a most heinous manner. This is the spirit of Kenya.  The public response showed what we can achieve as a nation when we are united as one; and that when it matters Kenya is a country with great resilience.

In the next days and weeks as we begin to internalise the magnitude of what happened, who was involved, who slept on the job, and what to do next, we must ensure that we do not lose our sense of unity. First will be the task of making sure that a tragedy like Westgate never happens again. Undoubtedly this will involve a lot more than just urging the intelligence and dedicated counter-terrorism officers to be more diligent. It will require a re-thinking of the set up of the entire security apparatus.

As I wrote on my blog following the attack, the murderers at Westgate have taught us that AK-47s are not just a menace in the hands of cattle rustlers in northern Kenya, carjackers on James Gichuru road, or armed robbers in Kayole. They can also be used as weapons for mass murder. To reiterate, the lesson here is that terrorists bent on causing carnage can exploit small lapses in security that we have come to accept as “normal”. 

As such, the regular police must do a better job of keeping these weapons from the hands of criminals. According to a 2012 survey on small arms and light weapons, there are between 530,000 and 680,000 firearms in civilian hands across the country.

These figures tell us that in order to prevent another Westgate from happening we must get serious about the policing of arms. Most of the guns are in the thinly governed and policed northern reaches of our country. It is these same guns that travel south and find themselves in the hands of criminals that are the cause of heightened insecurity in the country.

The government must do more to get hands out of civilian hands and seriously address cases of corruption within the disciplined forces that lead to criminals accessing guns intended for use by state security officers. We cannot afford to keep looking the other way as our people get slaughtered like chicken.

Reforming the security sector will be hard because of entrenched interests. But the president now has an angry public on his side. He must not let this opportunity go to waste. Those who are not doing their job should be shown the door. This is no longer a matter of protecting one’s trusted lieutenants or ensuring that one’s close associates have a cushy job.

It is about the serious business of protecting sacred Kenyan lives and property. A failure to show a credible drive to reform the security sector will only lead to further panic and resort to self-defense among our various communities. And as I have stated before, this will only lead to further insecurity.

Beyond the immediate need for reform and reordering of the security apparatus, the government must ensure that the fight against the murderers who attacked us does not lead to an abandonment of our core values. Instead, the president must use every opportunity to keep Kenyans united and focused on being each other’s keeper, both as individuals and as communities. Terrorism must not be used as an excuse to limit our freedoms as a people, because then it is the terrorists who win. To echo the president, we are as brave and invincible as the lions on our coat of arms.