The Inspector-General is upping his game these days. Fearing that the malcontents of Nairobi may make his job of keeping government fences safe difficult if he continues with the use of half-inch nylon rope, he has decided to upgrade to tempered-steel chains. Of course, being the careful man that he is, he is testing out this new system right outside his offices along Taifa Road. The Inspector-General is convinced, and given the pervasive hostility of the residents of the Formerly Green City in the Sun, that the tempered-steel-and-concrete-walls of Jogoo House offer insufficient security, he has added a new layer of security using tempered-steel chains.
Mr Kimaiyo, and those that advise him, if indeed they exist at all, have come up with one harebrained scheme after another to secure public facilities. Whether we want to admit it to ourselves or not, it is apparent that the degree of creative thinking in the National Police Service has not advanced at all since the perfidious colonial government was consigned to the ash-heap of history. The focus - the entire focus - of the forces of law and order in Kenya is directed at keeping the people as far away from their government and, by extension, their political and administrative leaders, as possible. Their presence is only required on special occasions: political rallies of little value and elections. At any other time, they are to be kept at bay.
Of course it has never occurred to the idiots coming up with these plans that public spaces for the walking masses have been disappearing for a decade or so. Before the Ndung'u Commission did its thing, land-grabbing was always of a muscular variety; men and women acquired acres and hectares of public land using dubious means and questionable interpretations of land laws. Since the Ndung'u Commission Report was published, the stigma attached to allegations of land-grabbing have tempered the overt displays of greed. It seems, though, that the National Police Service has not seen the writing on the wall. Its flagrant encroachment onto pavements is pernicious as it is foolish.
When the National Police Service expands the zone of protection for "sensitive" installations, such as the Central Bank, the Treasury, Herufi House, Times Tower, County Hall, Sheria House, Vigilance House, Harambee House or, as of this morning, Jogoo House, it does so at the expense of the walking masses. Pavements have now become police-fortified security zones. Armed police patrol those zones behind the ropes and the chains. The walking masses must now walk on the road and contend with oncoming traffic. In its zeal to keep government fences safe, Mr Kimaiyo's National Police Service has become the new land-grabber. What he and his service have done is to make the already resentful residents of the Capital even more so. While they will not rebel against the indignities visited on them by the semi-literate Police Service, they will resist strongly any overtures by the Service in the name of "co-operation" and "doing their part." Mr Kimaiyo and the National Police Service are losing the battle for hearts and minds. That is an incredibly foolish thing to do when the Capital and the nation face the threats of al Shabaab and other dangerous people.
It is this foolishness that is curious. Counterintelligence and counterinsurgency do not work if the people think you are malicious or, worse, an idiot. The impression created by the Inspector-General is that he cares more for his safety than that of the people he has a sworn duty to protect. If that is the impression he wishes to create, he has succeeded. The price he must pay, though, is that he cannot come back and ask us for our help. He can ask; but when we choose to ignore him, he has none to blame but himself. If he wants to gauge the mood of the people, he should consider the aftermath of the murder of his two officers by a car bomb. It is only the political classes, whom he prioritises security for, that mourned the deaths of the police officers. A majority of law-abiding Kenyans did not notice and if they did, they did not care. His ropes and chains will simply make that situation worse.
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