Police at parliament grounds

On 14th May, 2015 Nairobians woke up to find sections of Parliament Road and Harambee Avenue closed to vehicular traffic in what the Ministry of Interior termed as enhanced security measures to protect Parliament Buildings and key public offices such as Harambee House and its Annex, KICC, the Treasury, Central Bank, Times Towers (KRA HQs), Nairobi County Hall and Nyayo House, inter alia. Police officers manning roadblocks turned away motorists who were driving into Parliament and adjacent buildings. This measure was implemented without notice and occasioned great inconvenience to motorists who had to seek alternative routes to access public offices. Incidentally, pedestrians were and are still allowed to access these areas with minimal and/or very casual physical checks. It is not clear whether the recent arrest and arraignment in court of a Senate staffer suspected of links with Al Shabaab or the impeding visit by US President Barack Obama prompted this enhanced security measure.

This knee-jerk reaction to security matters by police is not new. It is symptomatic of a police service that is oriented to protect a minority political elite at the expense of the majority tax-payers. In June 2008, police used disproportionate force to keep away citizens from the precincts of Parliament during that year’s Budget speech. Since then it has become a tradition during the reading of every annual budget speech to see armed police on horse-back and in riot gear or with menacing police dogs take over roads and lanes adjacent to Parliament. They close the entire area to human and vehicular traffic; reduce it to a mini-combat zone creating a real mess.

Judging by comments in social media, it is obvious that ordinary citizens do not get amused by these antics of the police. This outdated method of policing only serves to create a false sense of security for politicians. During election campaigns, these same politicians, including the President and his Deputy move all over the country mingling with the common folk in search of votes. Mwananchi is king then and all of them need his nod to get power. Tables turn after elections and voters become irrelevant. Politicians become venerable and perhaps invincible too. Whenever they assemble in the House of Parliament, mwananchi has to be kept away from them, using the most vicious method.

For starters, physical barriers such as road blocks, walls and security fences are the first and outmost level of security. They cannot prevent any attacks and only serve to slow down or discourage a hesitant intruder. If anything, physical barriers only help in isolating a potential target. A determined attacker or a militant dedicated to martyrdom cannot be deterred by such archaic methods of policing. Anybody who has basic training in the protection of terrestrial installations and corporeal entities knows that isolation of a probable target creates more insecurity than security. An isolated target is easier to hit and exterminate. Isolating politicians from the masses does not make them any safer, if anything, the seclusion emphasizes the social gap between the two groups and becomes a source of anger and contempt in the long run. It is never in the interest of any political leadership to elicit disdain from its following but the current leadership of Parliament and police is doing exactly that. It is politicians who need mwananchi more than he needs them! Ironically, neither the leadership of Parliament nor any of the national security agencies raised a finger when Kenyan youth took to social media to express support for Al Shabaab when the militants threatened to blow up the House of Parliament a few weeks ago.

The Kenya police service has for a long time maintained countless road blocks and vehicular barriers along every major highway in the country but this has hardly helped in detecting or preventing serious transnational crimes like terrorism, poaching or trafficking in humans, weapons and narcotic drugs. An integrated security system which incorporates physical access controls and video surveillance cameras placed discreetly in places hard to tamper with or disable is the best anecdote against terror attacks or unwarranted intrusions into sensitive installations. Inspector General Joseph Boinet should therefore order his officers to remove vehicular barriers from Harambee Avenue and Parliament Road once the Integrated Public Safety Communications and Surveillance System which Safaricom was contracted to implement on behalf of the government is officially launched at the end of this month. 

By Capt. (Rtd) Collins Wanderi
CHAIR-Kenya Institute of Forensic Auditors (KeIFA).