Appoint a Commission, Mr President.

The ghosts of the Westgate Mall will not rest easily. Every time there are doubts over what kind of measures we need to take in the name of national security, Westgate is invoked with a degree of gravity to emphasise the urgency of the measures being proposed. The President, in his Mashujaa Day speech, invoked Westgate not less than three times while asking the people to support his government in its efforts to enhance the security of the nation through the incorporation of the National Youth Service, NYS, into the security sector and the Nyumba Kumi programme.

The speculation surrounding what the National Executive did during the Westgate siege will not die down and its constant invocation by the President and members of his Cabinet will only keep that speculation alive. Westgate revealed deep operational schisms between the National Police Service and the Kenya Defence Forces, something the President hopes to resolve by the establishment of the Metropolitan Military Command. It also revealed the woeful unpreparedness of the Cabinet Secretary for the Interior as well as his counterpart in Defence. It revealed that major changes are needed in the National Police Service, including in the Directorate of Criminal Investigations which we are now told is being starved of trained managers in the 47 commands established in the counties.

Parliament has singularly failed to oversee the affairs of the National Executive. Its creation of the the General Oversight Committee is an admission that despite the highfaluting talk of oversight, its committees lack the maturity to prioritise matters of national importance. Its examination of the Westgate affair was shambolic and is report was an embarassment.

Kenya is in a strange place. It is more mature than its neighbours in the establishment of public institutions. But it is hobbled by a complicated past that has not been addressed with sobriety or honesty. Too many ghosts hide in the closets and before we can even begin to reform the national security apparatus, we must grapple with uncomfortable truths about the men and women in charge of the national security. We must also hold a bold conversation regarding the place of national security in the general safety of the public. Before the President can exhort us to join in neighbourhood policing, he must make public moves to assure the people that they will remain afterthoughts as exemplified with the National Executive's obsession with national security at the expense of public safety.

The President has a chance to break with the past, as his predecessor did with the appointment of the Waki Commission after the violence of 2007/2008. He must appoint a Commission of Inquiry, as he had promised, to look into the national security apparatus generally, paying particular attention at the events of September 2013. It is the only way that the people can participate effectively in the reforms being undertaken in policing. It is the only way people can trust that the process will not confirm in office wolves in sheep's clothing out to make a killing from the people. It is the only way to have an objective assessment of the state of national security and public safety in Kenya. It will be a demonstration of the President's commitment to the peace, safety, security and welfare of the people.