Are we a nation of watchmen now?

Kenya is slowly being turned into a nation of worriers: the presence of armed police and somewhat armed private security reinforces the impression that the next al Shabaab atrocity is only a heartbeat away. The Police are not making things easier by appearing not to be arresting and prosecuting every nefarious terrorist plotter that appears on their radar. Perhaps it is the nature of security operations; one cannot openly disclose how and when an operation was conducted or by whom if one is to mount more successes against their enemy. We may have to trust that when the National Intelligence Service and the National Police claim that more terrorist plots have been foiled is true.

But it is in the way Kenyans have been persuaded to give up whatever shred dignity they had to the wandering hands and eyes of security officers that makes the situation so Kafkaesque. Because of decades of under-investment in the general security and welfare of the people, the Government of Kenya cannot claim to be able to keep its people safe from the likes of al Qaeda or al Shabaab. The main reason why Jomo Kenyatta and Daniel Toroitich arap Moi built up the Kenya Police and the Kenya Police Reserves, as well as the General Service Unit and the Special Branch, was to use the state security establishment as a weapon to browbeat the people and to intimidate political opponents. They succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. Many thought that Mwai Kibaki would not fall into this trap; the build up of the Administration Police, the GSU and the Kenya Police belies this naive wish. But more police and intelligence officers has not translated into a feeling of security for the people, or indeed, actual security for the people. And now we are being stalked at every turn with gargoyles wielding beeping metal-detecting wands.

Everyone in Kenya deserves the feeling of being on top of the world, but that feeling is dashed every time we walk into a public venue or a venue where a large number of members of the public gather. The inevitable happens: you stop, spread your arms, have a beeping wand waved perfunctorily over your body, before you are admitted. Whether you are armed or not, it is the rare occasion when the wand-wielder will demand you empty your pockets. The charade played out in thousands of venues across the country does not inspire confidence. Neither do images of burning police headquarters, even if they are located in towns teeming with al Qaeda or al Shabaab types. Nor too images of little boys and girls nursing shrapnel injuries sustained when their Sunday School class is bombed. Not even the images of triumphal KDF troops on the streets of Kismayu can erase the feeling that we are living a Kafkaesque tragedy.

Don't these people have another way of keeping us safe that is more sophisticated than the security of sledgehammer-versus-mosquito model they have pursued for the past decade? If a person is determined to do us harm, the presence of the KK Guards and their ilk standing oafishly at the entrance to every Uchumi Supermarket in Nairobi will not deter them. This is not Uganda, a police state if there ever was one. This is Kenya, a nation that aspires to civilisation-status. We won't be attaining it if we flood the streets with poorly-paid, over-worked, badly-trained watchmen and police. We need a better way of keeping away the gunmen and bombers out to do us harm. Or killing them without bringing down the wrath of the UN Special Rapporteur on Extra-judicial Killings upon us.