Disagree if you must, but agree on security

Kenya: It is now 16 years since the US Embassy and Ufundi House in Nairobi were bombed by terrorists, and one would be forgiven for concluding that our leaders have not learned any useful lessons from such attacks which have grown in frequency and relentlessness.

Senseless killings by terror groups – the latest in the Coast region, northern Kenya and Nairobi – have continued unabated with the security apparatus seeming logistically challenged in predicting or forestalling such attacks.

Nevertheless, such unprovoked strikes have served to rally Kenyans together with the growing consensus that the perpetrators of such atrocities must not be allowed to benefit from their actions. While the attacks are designed to instill fear and despondency among local people, they have done the opposite and engendered a sense of patriotic fervor and unity among us.

This is as it should be; united to confront our challenges. But the most recent attacks in Mpeketoni brought out the worst in us; they triggered ugly rounds of recriminations with the Government and some of its critics, particularly in the Opposition, trading accusations over who should shoulder the blame.

While President Uhuru Kenyatta says inciting political rhetoric by the Opposition has created the conditions that have been exploited by ruthless militia to paint the Jubilee administration as incapable of governing, the Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD) maintains that the State must bear the full responsibility of protecting the lives and properties of all Kenyans and those who reside in the country.

The exchange is worse in social media platforms where Kenyans are tearing each other apart on the basis of ethnicity and religion.

This blame game is not helping address factors that have exacerbated the growing insecurity in major towns and rural regions. Only last week, leaflets began circulating in Nakuru warning members of certain ethnic groups to leave the county, even as some governors began to ban the Opposition from holding political rallies in their counties. Ethnic balkanisation must not have any place in Kenya because it is the greatest threat to our peace.

Kenyans must realise that by allowing themselves to be divided along ethnic and sectarian lines, they are falling into the trap laid by terror networks such as the Al Shabaab that aim to disrupt the way we live.

There have been many theories trying to explain the bases on which insecurity thrives. One of the foremost theories is that it thrives on the desperation of jobless youths. Those who argue against this theory point out that insecurity is a threat even in developed countries where youth unemployment is not necessarily a national crisis.

But insecurity of terrorism nature has continued to defy conventional wisdom. Linking an act of terror to political rhetoric might be a stretch. However, that characterisation must be impartially and competently probed to gauge its validity.

And as our detectives employ every available human and capital resource in getting to the bottom of the Mpeketoni attacks, it must not be lost on anyone us that security is the collective responsibility of all of us.

National security is so fundamental to our existence as a country that it cannot be exclusively left to the hands of a few people.

The first responsibility of course goes to Jubilee and specifically to the Presidency. CORD leaders too have a role to play in ensuring national security. Responsibility over national security is not a matter that will be transacted on political podiums. It is a serious matter over which truthful, responsible and accountable leaders must cross ranks and sit together to come up with lasting homegrown solutions.

Whoever makes that call for talks on security and peaceful co-existence is not important for Kenyans to know. All that Kenyans, investors and visitors in our country are interested in is the assurance that their lives and property are well taken care of.

If the leadership of this country are to ever take a bipartisan approach on anything, the security alarm has gone off. We demand that our leaders take that call.