Why lapses in Kenya's security system beg answers

By Juma Kwayera

Kenya is paying the price of failing to tackle official corruption, with the economy once again headed for the doldrums due to insecurity.

The murder of British tourist and abduction of two others in the past month have sent alarm bells, especially in tourist source countries, with respective embassies in Nairobi sending out travel advisory alerts that are already hitting tourism, the country’s second-leading foreign exchange earner after horticulture.

Experts fault institutions charged with ensuring territorial integrity and criminal justice for the indifference that has turned Kenya into a playground for criminals of other countries. However, recent incursions by criminals linked to al Shabaab dissidents has exposed Kenya’s soft underbelly, raising concerns about the country’s ability to repulse external aggression.

In an interview with The Standard on Sunday, Capt (retired) Simiyu Werunga says the police are structured in a manner that it serves the Executive rather than the public.

"The top serves the Executive and the political elite. There is, therefore, need for reorganisation of the force to be more protective than reactive to ensure national integrity is not violated," says Werunga, the director-general of the African Centre for Security and Strategic Studies.

Concerns over the country’s anaemic security became more apparent after four Kenyan soldiers were taken captive by Somali raiders believed to be al Shabaab elements in two separate incidents — one on the Kenya-Somalia border in the north and the most recent being when a Kenyan speedboat chasing down al Shabaab captors of a French tourist capsized.

The two missing navy officers are suspected to be in the hands of the Somali insurgents. This was barely before alleged Somali militiamen raided Mandera town on Wednesday and killed three people.

Foreign attacks

The ease with which foreign marauders wreak havoc on Kenyan territory without an effective response has been a major source of concern. Former PS in the Office of the President Ali Korane lays blame on the Executive. He says President Kibaki has not been active in demonstrating the military might of the country to forestall potential security threats.

"During former President Daniel Moi’s time, the Executive could not compromise on the integrity of the Kenyan territory. In spite of the political and economic challenges at the time, Kenyans felt secure inside their borders. The current regime has been too soft," says Korane.

Ethiopia, with the largest army in the region — 800,000 soldiers — deploys its military to guard its borders whenever Somali militiamen attempt to make incursions in its territory. The effectiveness of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s repulsion of the Islamic insurgents has turned Kenya into a soft target for the militiamen and pirates.

Werunga questions why President Kibaki cannot order the military to rid the country of foreign military actors. "The army is idle. Why can’t they be ordered out of the barracks to secure our borders?" adds Werunga.

In a leaked cable to the United States, whistleblower Wikileaks says Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni describes Kenyan security forces as career forces incapable of securing the country against external aggression.

Museveni dismissed Kenyan military as professional outfit content to remain in the barracks and therefore lacks the capacity to repulse a guerrilla war such as the one waged by al Shabaab. Security experts now believe the perception of the Kenyan army and police as sitting ducks has played a role in encouraging foreign invasions on to the Kenyan territory.

Armed Merrille militiamen and the Oromo Liberation Army from Ethiopia have turned the northern Kenyan territory into a playground, while the Karimajong cattle rustlers from Uganda enter and exit the Kenyan territory at will. In the police force, a senior officer who requested anonymity for fear of reprisals admits criminal investigation and intelligence units are not adequately equipped to deal with security issues. More significantly, senior officers abet insecurity by taking bribes from criminals.

"The security forces can only take a cue from the President who is the Commander of the Armed Forces. He has been quiet even when security of the country is under severe test," the Mombasa-based officer says.

The reputation of the Kenyan police and army as corrupt has sullied further the country’s international rating as an ideal tourist destination, with The Guardian newspaper of London reporting: "What seems certain — and troubling for Kenya — is that the Somali kidnappers have had help from local Kenyans, both in finding targets and in getting away through the narrow creeks of the Lamu archipelago."

Absent government

With a military that largely remains idle, Werunga says, the overstretched police force is under-resourced to deal with foreign criminal gang incursions.

The grim picture of the Kenyan security is further outlined in a new report released on Tuesday titled, Termites at Work: A Report on Transnational Organised Crime and State Erosion in Kenya. "While to the onlooker, Kenya appears to be in a relatively healthy state, it is in fact weakening due to a process of internal decay. Endemic corruption and powerful transnational criminal networks are ‘white-anting’ State institutions and public confidence in them," says the report.

It says corruption has adversely affected Kenya’s ability to secure its borders and as a result, Kenya is transiting to a ‘criminalised and captured state’ where the Government is absent.

It says: "Termites are at work, hollowing out State institutions from the inside. As a result, development is being hampered, governance undermined, public trust in institutions destroyed and international confidence in Kenya’s future constantly tested".

"Transnational organised crime and corruption have therefore set Kenya back and could cause it to slide in the direction of becoming a captured and criminalised State. This is not an outrageous notion. When a State can be said to have become criminalised is difficult to define or stipulate," the report by the International Peace Institute warns.