IWPR approached both the head of Kenya’s police force, Inspector General David Kimaiyo, and the interior minister, Joseph Ole Lenku, for comment on improvements made over the last year, but they declined to be interviewed.
However, in an interview with Citizen TV in May this year, Lenku said the government was “doing more than enough” to keep Kenyans secure.
“There is a very clear and very elaborate long-term strategy on security by government,” he said.
In Nairobi, and especially around the city’s many Western-style shopping centres, there is little sign of an increased security presence. Most premises rely on private security companies whose staff are badly paid and poorly- trained.
“The security forces will get there by the time a bunch of hostages have been taken and the attack has started,” Cheeseman said. “They won’t get there to prevent it most of the time.”
He added that more investment and training were needed if security personnel were to become capable of detecting and preventing attacks. He said advice should be sought internationally from forces like London’s Metropolitan Police, which was forced to learn the lessons of a series of linked terror attacks in July 2005.
But particularly where the police were concerned, Cheeseman questioned whether there was the political will to take such steps.
“Kenyan politicians are very wary of making the police too professional,” he said, “because if you make the police too professional, they might turn around and start prosecuting people who are government supporters. There is a value to undermining the force.”
About The Author
