Crisis communication lessons from terrorist attack on dusitD2 hotel

The world community and Kenyans in particular, are full of praise for the manner in which security operations were organised and executed in the wake of the terrorist attack at the dusitD2 Hotel in which 21 people died.

Compared to the Westgate terrorist attack in September 2013, there was evidence of end –to- end coordination by the multi-agency security team deployed to respond to the attack. The operation was well coordinated and precise. Unlike the Westgate disaster, there was no discernable sibling rivalry between the securities regiments involved in the operation.  There was one central command, where all the information was being processed and relayed. Even the rescue agencies like the Kenya Red Cross relayed information from one central command, after comparing notes with the security agencies.

One critical issue, which may not have been obvious to Kenyans who followed the siege from mass media channels, is how information was relayed, controlled and shared during the complex rescue operation.

Companies that have gone through a crisis in Kenya, or are likely to have a crisis in future, have a lot to learn regarding how to handle a crisis situation from the way the dusitD2 operation was carried out; specifically  on how to handle information.

In Crisis Communication 101, the way information is managed and relayed during a crisis is very critical to the success of the operation. During the security operation at dusitD2, all the Government agencies relayed the same message. There was no contradiction in information between Inspector General Police Joseph Boinnet, Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiangi, and various security agencies involved in the operation.

Crisis communication

When President Uhuru Kenyatta finally addressed the nation at the tail end of the operation, he had been properly briefed, and had all the facts about the security operation. There was consistency in messaging, and this must have contributed to the overall success of the operation. In other words, the people in charge of the operation followed the three tenets of crisis communication; quick response, accuracy and consistency. For most companies that have been involved in crisis situations in Kenya, the biggest faux pas has always been what top management does, or does not do immediately a crisis happens. 

Despite having internal crisis communication contingency plans, most companies in Kenya do not follow the do’s and don’ts in crisis communication, but normally react in an ad hoc and defensive manner, which most of the time aggravates the situation. The top management normally, or in most cases, ignores counsel from their internal PR or corporate communications department or from their PR agencies and release generic and colourless statements that end up obfuscating the crisis.

When a crisis occurs, people want to know what happened immediately.  There is often an information vacuum being created by a crisis, and media will be at the forefront   to fill the information vacuum and be a key source of initial crisis information.

The result

Sadly, in most instances, information is given in bits and pieces, and media is left to fill in the gaps or to even speculate as to what is happening as no one is willing to share timely and authoritative information. The situation is sometimes aggravated by having several spokespersons who end up contradicting each other by sending different messages. The result is misinformation, and media normally becomes a scapegoat as if they are the originators of the crisis in the first place.

While handling a crisis situation, speaking with one voice does not necessarily mean that only one person speaks for the organisation.  The Media may want to ask questions from experts so they may need to talk to different persons in the company. What the crisis team should do is share information so that different people can still convey a consistent message. The focus during a crisis then should be on the critical information to be delivered rather than how to handle the media.

However, there have been some instances when companies in Kenya have handled crisis situations in an exemplary manner. Top in mind is national carrier Kenya Airways, when their plane went down soon after takeoff in Doula, Cameroon, in May 2007, killing 114 passengers on board.

Kenya Airways, working closely with the company’s PR Agency, was able to manage the crisis through a carefully scripted crisis communication plan. The company created one information control centre, where media were updated regularly throughout the crisis. Even if Media was not given all the information at once given the sensitive nature of the rescue operation, the regular updates from Kenya Airways made sure that there was no information vacuum.

Companies must also start using the expertise of their internal public relations department teams, and public relations agencies as both play a critical role in the crisis response by helping to develop the messages that are sent to the public.

Mr Muriuki is a Strategic Communication [email protected]