I'm barely a week old in Yangon, the commercial capital of this beautiful country called Myanmar, having arrived just two days before the Al Shabaab terrorists stormed the West Gate shopping mall in Nairobi and killed more than 60 innocent people, injuring almost 200 and causing mass destruction to the once magnificent structure that was so popular among Nairobians and expatriates. It was even harder for me because here I am in a foreign land, far from my family, far from my relatives, far from my friends and colleagues and not knowing if they were safe.
The media here wasn't helping much either, I'm not sure if they have any knowledge of Kenya or simply chose to ignore what was happening, only the Japanese broadcaster NHK made efforts to follow the story and presented it in English. When I walked into the office on the Monday after the attack, colleagues at the office were more than empathetic, mourning with Kenya because most of them had lived in Nairobi and only left less than a year ago. They had fresh memories of West Gate as the place where they would occasionally go to shop and enjoy their coffee as they met their friends.
As the death toll kept rising, questions began emerging as to how the terrorists managed to stage such a daring attack in Nairobi, a city that was brought to its knees in August 1998 when Al Qaeda blew the US Embassy in the city center, killing more than 250 Kenyans and leaving hundreds with permanent scars.
In the recent past, Kenya has been a soft target for the Somali-based Al Shabaab, a militia that is fighting to overthrow the government and impose sharia law in Somali. The fighting in Somali had intensified, leading to mass displacement of the population, many of whom crossed the border into Kenya and found their way into Dadaab Refugee Camp. Many other Somalis made their way to Nairobi, becoming urban refugees while others ventured into business and ended up taking over the sprawling Eastleigh neighbourhood which they have turned into another Mogadishu. It's an open secret that all cheap stuff is found in Eastleigh. Illicit guns can be hired or bought from Easteligh, same as Kenyan identification documents.
Eastleigh continues to attract more and more Somalis because it is among the most poorly policed areas of the country. It is also near Majengo slums, an area where Al Shabaab is said to have conducted massive recruitment of non-Somali youth, luring them into Islam and taking them to Somali to be trained as combatants. A number of such youths have returned to execute their masters' missions, some have "succeeded" in blowing apart non-Muslim targets, while others are cooling their heels in custody after their missions backfired.
Al Shabaab regards Kenyans as infidels, kafir and wants Kenyan forces to leave Somali immediately, yet the Kenyan forces only went into Somali to create a buffer zone that would facilitate the return of hundreds of thousands of refugees who have expressed interest in retuning to rebuild their country after living in refugee camps for more than 2 decades.
The average Kenyan knows where the blame should go - to the government, which has failed to even tackle the run away crime and corruption in the country. The large number of Somalis in the capital has been directly linked to the increased terror attacks in the city. It is widely believed that corrupt officials are dishing out national IDs and Passports to Somalis, thus allowing them to move freely within the country.
I must quickly add that not all Somalis are guilty. Working and interacting with them in the refugee camp makes one realize that there are many peace-loving Somalis and just a few hardliners who are bent on causing terror and mayhem in the country.
The authorities have not done Kenyans good at all. There has been systemic failure over the years. The country does not have a dedicated border security force and only relies on policemen to man the country's porous borders. The police officers and the Immigration officers tasked with controlling the flow of people into the country have been using their positions to enrich themselves at the expense of national security.
Over the years, the country's National Intelligence Services (NIS) has only perfected the art of political espionage, keeping tabs on key opposition leaders in a bid to safeguard the presidency and the business interests of those close to the center of power. The taxpatyer has not yet seen any value for the billions of Kenyan shillings that go to this institution. There are now calls for a major overhaul of the state security agencies, key among them the NIS. But the question is - does the president have the courage to pull the rug under the feet of the same fellas who made ascend to the highest office in the land?
How can a country commit it's entire security to a bunch of people from the same backyard as if it was a village vigilante group? Top level security decisions cannot be a preserve of one community - no wonder there has never been any serious efforts to reclaim Migingo island in Lake Victoria. No wonder people can be slaughtered like chicken in Tana River, no wonder the uprising by the Mombasa Republican Council was crushed with a lot force - to protect the land owners whom the locals have been accusing of grabbing their ancestral land, no wonder during the post election skirmishes in 2008, the police used live bullets to disperse demonstrators in Kisumu and Kibera but not in Nakuru or Naivasha... All decisions relating to national security seem to be badly skewed.
May the blood of innocent Kenyans that was shed at the West Gate, Tana River, Baragoi and other places in the country trigger the authorities into meaningful action.
God loves Kenya. He will see us through this mess and will restore our hope and pride as a nation. Amen
