The scene of the killing of former
Kabete MP George Muchai, who was shot dead alongside his driver and two
bodyguards on Kenyatta Avenue in Nairobi on February 7.
Photo/AYUB MUIYURU
The murder of Kabete MP George Muchai, has gatecrashed new Interior Cabinet secretary Joseph Nkaissery’s party in a way he could hardly have anticipated. Since his appointment in December last year, Nkaissery has led a charmed life, with a lull in insecurity that had almost induced a collective slumber. Unfortunately, crime has just left its calling card at his door!
The Maj-Gen should now know he has work to do, and that a lull might be but just the calm before a hurricane. There are several issues he needs to tackle with speed and decisiveness. First, he needs to make the price of political assassinations and other murders very unpalatable for perpetrators.
Most murders in Kenya remain unresolved. The police can work if they want and it’s doubtful there is a murder they cannot unravel if they put their minds to it. Indeed, Justice Luka Kimaru, while sending to the gallows the three men who killed the MP for Embakasi Mugabe Were, in 2008, commended the police for thorough and professional investigations.
However, sloth, corruption, sheer lethargy and bureaucracy has given murderers a field day; they kill without a second thought. Complete impunity! Nkaissery must change all that. Muchai’s murder, though tragic, has given him his first chance to demonstrate he is a new broom.
His tenure must be evaluated on the percentage of murders that were resolved under his watch and its deterrence effect. Further, he must act on the so far unresolved murders with the same passion and vigour that Chief Justice Willy Mutunga has attacked the huge backlog of cases he found in the courts.
Secondly, terrorism remains Kenya’s Achilles heel. Our vulnerability has a lot to do with police (un)preparedness, intelligence gathering and sharing, corruption and sheer ineptitude.
He must mobilise his force to work with other security organs like the military, NIS, homeguards, communities in terrorism prone areas, as well as train counter-terrorism security officers to raise their skills to international standards.
If he thinks Muchai’s murder has put him under pressure, let him ask his predecessor Joseph ole Lenku, what type of boilerplate temperatures he found himself in during the Westgate Shopping Mall terror attack.
Thirdly, there are too many guns in both the wrong hands, and in the hands of licenced private individuals who are misusing them to settle bar brawls and eliminate rivals in love triangles. He will need to act very decisively in both cases. A new and urgent challenge is the now rising number of politically-connected individuals who are acting with complete impunity to break the law and have so far got away with it.
Nkaissery must show these people there is a new sheriff in town who is ready to lay down the law. Does he have the mettle? Fourth, not much thinking seems to go into police management of traffic, especially in Nairobi. One cannot achieve a different result by always doing the same thing the same way as has happened for years.
The CS must put the Traffic commandant Charlton Mureithi on the spot to think up new traffic management strategies. New thinking is needed on how to tackle the problem, but the top brass has clearly decided endemic traffic jams are actually the norm and require no intervention.
Lastly, bring back integrity into the police. Kenya is simply reeling from shock over the unbelievable stories emerging from the vetting forums where officers cannot account for millions of shillings deposited into their bank accounts. It’s clear many officers are not working for Kenyans, but for themselves, and extorting money from those they are supposed to serve.
No wonder insecurity is so rife! Nkaissery must clean up the service if his grand plans are not to become stillborn. It has too many rotten apples. Right now, the word on the street is that Kenyans live by the grace of God because there is no security to talk about. Nkaissery has a huge task to restore public confidence in the security apparatus, and get the police back to working for Kenyans. Make Kenyans believe in their country, again. Kazi kwako! gathukara@gmail.com
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