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Open letter to President on war against terrorism

Dear President Uhuru Kenyatta, I hope this letter finds you well. Let me first congratulate you on the just concluded Global Entrepreneurship Summit, which you co-hosted with US President Barack Obama.

Your efforts and endeavours to transform this country into a better and more industrious nation with robust economic growth are tremendous.

Several tangible projects have been initiated by your Government like the Huduma Kenya initiative and the construction of the standard gauge railway. These advancements deserve a big applause.

However, there’s one major challenge that is posing a huge threat to our peace, security and investor confidence.

Kenya has in the recent past suffered unspeakable atrocities at the hands of Al Shabaab and many lives have been lost in the most brutal manner.

The responsibility of every government is to ensure its citizens are safe and protected from enemies – both within and outside.

Jubilee has suffered the biggest challenge in security, more than any other country in the region and this can only be attributed to police laxity and several loopholes in the security department.

Mr President, as much as the security docket remains a prerogative of the central government, the county administration should also be involved.

It has become a tradition that every financial year, the Government tables a massive master-plan budget. This budgetary allocation sets aside billions for the security docket, but we are yet to see the desired results. We won’t raise eyebrows even if the Government allocated trillions to security as long as we sleep with total peace of mind.

But sadly, most of these allocations set aside for security forces only end up being channelled to few individuals. We’ve heard countless times of the poor living conditions among the police yet they are the people who are supposed to be vigilant and ensure our safety.

Mr President, the Government must up its game by uplifting the lives and allowances for these hardworking officers who risk their lives everyday just to make sure that we are safe. This will boost their morale, and rampant cases of corruption in the police department will drop.

Kenya must also equip itself with the latest intelligence gathering techniques in order to check the runaway insecurity.

Invest in securing our border entry points Mr President rather than foreign patrols in Somalia. We need to rein in terrorists along the border from the Kenyan side.

More emphasis should be put on our borders, especially the ones between Somalia, Ethiopia and South Sudan because they pose the biggest threat since armed militant groups just stroll across the border after committing crimes in Kenya.

Your Government should also restructure and reinforce the intelligence service since most of the atrocities committed, like the Garrissa University attack, could have been avoided. Rumour has it that there was enough evidence on the looming attack but it was ignored.

 

Stringent measures must be put in place to curb the rising radicalisation of young people and the extremist theories being taught in various centres by radical imams.

What happened at the Westgate Mall and Garissa University will forever remain a blemish on the Jubilee administration’s record.

More must be done in order to avoid any future security lapses.

Finally, I wish you all the best in the steps your government is taking to make our country safe

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