Security agencies have dropped the ball, once again

State security agencies have dropped the ball. Again. And this time round, more than 60 Kenyans have been killed in the most barbaric of ways by cattle rustlers. Women, children, toddlers and the unborn were butchered.

True to script, the Interior minister has talked tough and ordered disarmament of Pokots, Turkanas and Samburus in the region. Senior police officers have flown to the valley of death, held security meetings and flown back to the city with a promise to act on insecurity.

Politicians have also done their thing: Condemned the attacks, preached peace on political platforms and issued threats to their opponents. Kenya has moved on, as it must. But not before some records are made straight and a few home truths confronted.

The world watched with keen interest the elections in Britain. When the final vote was counted, serious pronouncements followed. All of them in public interest. Prime Minister David Cameron was magnanimous in his acceptance speech following the landslide victory for the Conservative Party. Labour leader Ed Miliband conceded the devastating defeat congratulated Cameron and quit the leadership of the centre-left party. He took “absolute and total responsibility” for the loss. That is responsible leadership.

If a small fraction of the things that happen in Kenya ever happened in truly democratic countries, leaders would take absolute and total responsibility. Which of our leaders would be willing to take absolute and total responsibility for the killings that have become so common-place in Kenya?

The Nadome killings have exposed another Kenya – the wild, wild Kenya – tucked in the rough terrains of a countryside completely detached from the centre. At the time of writing this editorial, bodies of victims of the Monday attack were rotting in the killing fields.
We received images of the rotting bodies covered by swarms of flies as vultures and hyenas were lost for choice. The argument and justification for this barbaric treatment of the dead is found in age-old cultural practices that forbid Pokots from burying the bodies of warriors killed by the enemy. The same culture that condones cattle rustling and revenge attacks as a way of life.

In this day and age, which government allows such practices to thrive? In this day and age, which leaders want to be associated with such practices? In this day and age, which police officers issue threats to journalists for telling the story of a people abandoned and condemned to self-destruction by both government and their own leaders? Who will take absolute and total responsibility for the shame of Nadome?

By now it must have occurred to the security arm of government that long gone are the days when officers would sleep on their jobs and get away with it. Trying to intimidate journalists in their line of duty will simply not wash. The energies being wasted in threatening journalists could be best used to secure Kenyans and their properties.

The truth of the matter is that there were serious security lapses in the latest round of attacks. The truth of the matter is that journalists counted more than 50 bodies of victims of the raid. The truth of the matter is that the senior security officers visited Nadome valley days after the killings and escaped an ambush by bandits. The truth of the matter is that bodies of the slain victims are rotting in the bushes.

Instead of running after the journalists who work under very difficult and dangerous circumstances to bring out these truths, security officers should seek to work closely with them towards securing our country.

Our journalists will not be cowed to see stories only through the eyes of security officers. They will follow the story where it leads them and tell it as it is. The least the security officers can do is ensure the safety of journalists as they go about their duty.