How well-trained guards averted maximum carnage in 1998 US embassy bombing

By JOE KIARIE

The 1998 bombing of the US embassy in Nairobi, which killed 212 people and wounded 4,000 others, had some unlikely heroes. While the nation mourned the terror attack victims, it is the embassy’s private guards who made headlines in security journals as they received accolades from international security experts. Their heroics on the day had presumably saved thousands of lives.

“My people were trained. They knew what they were supposed to be doing,” William J Guidice, the president of United International Investigative Services (UIIS), an American firm that had employed and trained the guards, said later.

Guards manning the embassy’s front gate had gallantly blocked suicide bombers in a truck laden with explosives from entering the embassy’s basement parking lot. They also thwarted attempts by al-Qaeda terrorists to access the diplomatic compound through the rear entrance.

US State Department officials would later admit that no one in the embassy would have survived had the truck reached the garage. With the bomb’s impact shattering building windows in a radius of almost one kilometre, they said bomb would have brought down the building and killed many people in the vicinity.

Joash Okindo, the senior guard manning the heavy steel gates behind the drop barrier at the rear entrance on that day, had he not been comprehensively trained on security matters what happened would have been even worse. Having being hired and trained by Factory Guards in 1985, he was in 1986 seconded to the US embassy where he was assigned to guard offices and check people and cargo moving in and out.

This new assignment came with more training, although this would radically change when he was later absorbed by United International Investigative Services, which took over the private contract to protect the building.

 “US marines would regularly take us through detailed training on detecting bombs and other weapons, surveillance and safe response. This involved physical training and written exams,” he told The Standard on Saturday.

 Unknown to him, terrorists would come just two months after he had finished his training and received a certificate. “Everything I had learnt was still so fresh in my mind,” says Okindo, who is now a senior security officer at the US embassy in Nairobi.

He says he realised there was danger immediately a yellow pick-up truck pulled up and a jovial man strolled towards the gate. “The man had no proper paperwork for the hidden cargo they claimed was a diplomat’s parcel. He was also very nervous, had something thick smeared on his face and the car had incomplete registration numbers,” he explains. “I also realised he had two pistols bulging from his waistline.” Okindo says all these signs made him instantly realise he was dealing with a major terror threat, and his reaction would be critical. “I knew if I opened the gate, he would kill me and bomb the building,” he recalls.

The guard’s psychological games proved superior as he conversed at length with the terrorist but firmly denied him entry. “I persuaded him to allow me to call the shipping staff to come with keys even though I had a set in my pocket,” he recalls. “After some time, the terrorist grew impatient and threatened to shoot me if I did not open the gate. But I casually told him that if he killed me I won’t be able to help him. He just backed off and started talking to his colleague.”

The delaying tactics would later see the massive bomb explode outside the building, neutralising its impact. Fifteen years down the line, questions continue to linger as to whether Kenyan security firms have learnt from the 1998 bombing and exposed their guards to thorough training on counter-terrorism. Okindo, who oversees the training of guards from one of the leading private security firms locally, says little, if any, lessons were learnt, with many sensitive facilities badly exposed to attacks to date. “Many of our private guards continue to get very poor training,” he says.

“I feel angry when some of my colleagues casually walk into five-star hotels with their pistols undetected despite the guards running metal detectors over them”. Okindo says it is now not optional for private firms to train their personnel on terrorism and counterterrorism.

As was the case at Westgate Mall, he says property managers have also failed by not subjecting cargo going into their establishments to thorough security checks. In case of attacks launched similar to the Westgate one, Okindo says training guards on initial response and providing them with equipment to facilitate the same can save lives. “As a guard, you have to first assess people using your own judgment to know if they mean well. This might include asking basic questions and see their reaction,” he says.

“The guards should have mobile alarms, which once pressed, would mutely send a danger signal to a central control room and show your location, giving room for the supervisors to come in,” states Okindo, who walks with a limp after breaking his foot in the 1998 bombing. He says anyone who responds should approach the area slowly and assess the situation from a distance to know the danger he is dealing with. This, he says, would give him time to soberly decide what action to take, including calling in police or locking the entrance. “If you run towards the attackers, or use a radio or phone, they will react, often with fatal consequences,” warns Okindo.

He advises owners of key buildings to fit them with two CCTV systems, one of which should be supported by batteries just in case there is a power blackout. He advises guards to indiscriminately observe the law during screening and have with them the contacts of all police stations around them.

The security officer supports the proposal to have private guards issued with guns, bullet-proof vests and helmets as partly proposed in the Private Security Regulation Bill, 2013.

He cites the case of Uganda, Rwanda and Morocco, where private guards are hold guns. In Morocco; armed guards were introduced after a spate of terrorist attacks. “The guns should nonetheless be only given to guards manning sensitive facilities. They should surrender them for safekeeping once their shift is over and take personal responsibility if they misuse them,” he states, adding that guards should properly remunerated to curb irresponsibility.

Benson Bwaku, another US-trained guard who came face to face with the 1998 bombers, underlined the need to arm private guards. “I wish I had a gun for I would have gunned the guy down,” he said.