Secrecy, talking points and legitimacy.

Susan Rice is Barack Obama's Assistant for National Security Affairs. Before that she was Barack Obama's ambassador to the United Nations. In 2012 the United States' Embassy in Benghazi, Libya, was attacked and the US ambassador and other officials were killed. In attempting to get ahead of the situation, Ms Rice was given a set of talking points - things she would emphasise as the US government got to grips with the situation. Because of what she said and what was discovered later, when Barack Obama wanted to nominate her to replace Hilary Clinton as Secretary of State, the political cost proved to be too high.

Amina Mohammed, the Cabinet Secretary for Foreign Affairs and International Trade, may be treading the same path that Susan Rice did. She is echoing the talking points of the Presidency, sowing doubt about whether or not it was al Shabaab or "local politicians" who were behind the bloodshed in Mpeketoni on Sunday and Monday of this week.

She might not pay as a high a price as Ms Rice did; after all, it is only in Kenya where someone would find prestige and power after having served at the United Nations and various other global institutions. What the Cabinet Secretary re-affirmed is something that has afflicted Kenya since the colonial government was first established: the overweening desire to create a tiny circle of those "who know" and everyone else. The Official Secrets Act has become the main reason why it is possible for immigration and police officer to take massive backhanders without it being discovered for a dozen years and why regardless of the public communications strategy of the Government of Kenya, it is possible for a jobless politician to make the government look bad every time a vicious crime is committed.

In the Digital Age, information will leak, sooner or later. With advances in encryption and decryption techniques and technologies, it is naive for the Government of Kenya to live with rules designed for days when files were actual cardboard folders that held actual pieces of paper with the ubiquitous "SECRET" stamped in red across the pages. Any one with a camera-enable mobile phone is potentially the biggest leaker of "sensitive" information and it matters not that mobiles are confiscated or that portable drives are not permitted in sensitive areas. Sooner or later, that information will get out and it will always get out at a time designed to be most embarrassing for the government. If the Presidency doubts this, the experience of the Chief Justice should have a salutary sobering effect.

In the vacuum created by the Official Secrets Act, Kenyans will listen to non-government sources who may out to exploit Kenyans' ignorance. Some may have credibility - such as the New York Police Department's report on the Westgate attack - so they are likely to be believed more than what the government says. The President vowed to appoint a Commission of Inquiry to look into the Westgate affair; even with the parliamentary whitewash of the affair, Kenyans know - or think they know - more from non-official sources. Mr Kenyatta's exhortations and assurances over public safety are ringing more and more hollow. It is only a matter of time that many Kenyans simply switch to listening to more persuasive - and probably divisive - voices than that of the person who should be the symbol of unity.