Ropes of Stupidity

In the harsh world of terrorism and counter-terrorism, the dumb get dead. It is Darwinian. If you are not the smartest one in the game, you die. Fast. Kenya is discovering this truism about terrorism. And it is apparent that the people making the decisions about where to deploy resources in the fight against al Shabaab, Mombasa Republican Council, Mungiki, et al, are held hostage to the staid ideas regarding the security of the nation. If you think this is all hyperbole, listen to the Commander-in-Chief and his Inspector-General extol the virtues of millions of eyes and thousands of cameras to forestall the suicide bomber about to take out a matatu.

One could forgive the Commander-in-Chief for being enamoured with cameras and all manner of shiny new toys; after all, in the run-up to the transfer of the Instruments of Power into his hands, he led a new-media, digitally-focussed campaign machinery that wiped the floor with his rivals. One cannot forgive the Inspector-General, on the other hand. It is time his brand of strategic thinking was consigned to the operational command of the General Service Unit; they are after all trained to thwack, thwack, thwack without considering the Big Picture issues that bedevil policing worldwide. Whether the C-in-C will admit or not, and whether the I-G admits it or not, the I-G is absolutely the worst person to oversee not only the transformation of the Kenya Police Force into the National Police Service. He simply does not have the imagination for it; indeed, he doesn't even seem to have the imagination to hire the guys with the right imagination. Worse still, his years as a shooter in the GSU seem to have drummed out any instinctive appreciation of the subtleties of policing.

This blogger keeps banging on about the ropes-as-security that the Inspector-General and his colleagues in the security establishment have deployed around "sensitive" buildings along Harambee Avenue and Haile Selassie Avenue. The obvious explanation is that the motorcars of important government functionaries are parked very near the fences. to prevent bad guys from setting off explosives near the cars, a section of the pavement has had to be commandeered to ensure that no one can get to the fence and toss a grenade at an important nabob's car. The less obvious explanation is that everyone from the Inspector-General on down has absolutely no idea what to do in order to keep not just nabobs safe, but the general public. It is how fascistic ideas such as Nyumba Kumi gain credence.

The Inspector-General might not appreciate this, but the Kenya police are the most revolting of all public servants. It is not their fault. They have always been reviled. But taking over public spaces in the name of national security will not reverse the revulsion with which they are held; it will make it worse. In an environment where Kenyans are already unwilling to assist the police in keeping the people safe, the jackbooted stupidity of commandeering public spaces without a guarantee that at least it is for a sensible cause guarantees that there will be even lesser assistance from the people. Mr Kimaiyo has had his chance. hH has done a shit job. It's time he was sent back to command the GSU at an operational level. That is the extent of his imagination, and skill.