Govt on the spotlight over NEP‘s security

By ERICK OTIENO
THE Government’s strategy in dealing with insecurity in the country is on the spotlight again following the Marsabit plane crash and renewed inter-clan skirmishes bordering on cattle rustling in northern Kenya and parts of the North Rift.
When Parliament adjourned on Wednesday to discuss a motion on insecurity in the country, the government was on the firing end for its lackadaisical response to security lapse in the areas.
Members of Parliament are demanding that military units which are concentrated in Nairobi be decentralised to the northern borders which are under frequent attack by foreign bandits from neighbouring Uganda and Ethiopia.
Nairobi, it is argued is far from the country’s borders making it impossible for military personnel to respond to external aggression at the areas appropriately. Of concern has been cattle rustling by bandits from the two countries who always kill several Kenyan herders and torch houses before fleeing with hundreds of goats, sheep and cows.
With the country’s bearing the brunt of incursions by foreign militiamen, the government is now being impressed upon to justify its huge budgetary allocation to the Department of Defence. The department is one of the top spenders of tax payers money, mainly for security equipment and training of soldiers.
Last week, militiamen suspected to be members of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) in Ethiopia crossed the common border and stole more than 300 cattle. The suspected militia who witnesses said were donned in Ethiopia’s military attire also killed two herders and abducted nine others in Dukana Village along the Kenya-Ethiopia border, 300 km east of Marsabit town.
MPs are incensed that despite the incursion by the militia into the country, the government was yet to protest to the Ethiopian Government to return the animals. Further, they insist that if the government could not initiate dialogue to have the stolen animals returned, then the military be mobilised to pursue the militia into their country.
Former Cabinet Minister, Raila Odinga, maintains Ethiopia has no right to allow bandits to cross over to Kenya and engage in cattle rustling, leaving several Kenyans dead.
“Kenya must enter into negotiations with Ethiopia and send a clear signal that we will not allow any more incursions into our territory. If the Government is not capable of protecting its citizens and their property it has no business remaining in power and should resign,” he says.
The Lang’ata MP, even thinks that it high time the Government enlisted the support of the United Nations in dealing with Ethiopian rebels if it is incapable of taming their aggression.
Though Kenya has been in the frontline in mediating peace across the continent and sending its forces to the UN peacekeeping missions across the world, it has been unable to protect its territories from external aggressors. The question by Hamisi MP, George Khaniri, was why the Government should continue sending its forces to foreign lands to keep peace when there is trouble in its own backyard.
The raids in northern Kenya by bandits from Ethiopia have been replayed for long, without any meaningful intervention by the government. As Foreign Affairs assistant Minister, Moses Wetangula put it, there is need for a full fledged military presence in northern Kenya to give area residents confidence in the government’s ability to guarantee their security.
However, Kapenguria MP, Samuel Moroto, thinks the solution to the matter lies on the flow of information from the District Security Committees to the national level than decentralisation of military units to areas prone to insecurity.
He says, although there was a high presence of military and General Service Unit (GSU) officers in several areas along the North Rift, the situation has not improved.
“Unless we change the way information is relayed from the districts to the national level, we will not achieve anything,” he says.
Elected leaders have always blamed District Security Committees for misleading the government on the actual situation on the ground by delaying information and lying on the number of casualties wherever fighting breaks out.
Samburu West MP, Simeon Lesrima, who moved the motion to discuss the state of insecurity in the country, was categorical that the country’s intelligence system had failed to rise to the occasion on the matter.
His constituency alone has been raided 16 times in the past two weeks yet the National Intelligence Security Service (NSIS) had done nothing to warn the government in time over the raids.
The government’s disarmament policy has also been blamed for continued inter-ethnic skirmishes in the region with local leaders accusing the state of carrying out the exercise selectively.
Many pastoral communities acquire guns to protect their cattle and in areas where disarmament has been done they become vulnerable to attack from rivals. Assistant Minister in the Office of the President (Provincial Administration) Kingi Kahindi, however, denies the claims, saying the first phase of disbarment was on voluntary basis and the government will soon move to the second phase.
Responding to issues raised during the debate, Internal Security Minister, John Michuki, was plain that the government will begin forceful disarmament and warned that any trouble shooters will be pursued and arrested irrespective of their positions in the society.
But even as Parliament was roasting the executive for failing to deal with insecurity in the region, MPs also shared blame for myriads of problems facing communities in Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASALs).
For more than 40 years, Parliament has been indifference to problems bedevilling the region and has failed to allocate it resources commensurate with their development needs.
The problem in the regions has been lack of adequate water, pasture and poverty, which is a result of lack of infrastructural development, but budgetary allocations to it have never been tailored to address any of these.
As MPs aptly suggested, budgetary allocation should be skewed in favour of the region for the next five years to bring its development at par with other parts of the country.
But residents from the area will have to keep their fingers crossed until the next budget is read to see if the MPs and the government can walk the talk.
There is no price in guessing that when the budget is finally read, huge votes for ministries will likely go to areas where those patrolling the corridors of power hail from. This is not the first time that marginalisation of the area has been on the limelight yet past national budgets have made nonsense of their needs for water and roads development.
However, threats by Leader of the Official Opposition, Uhuru Kenyatta, and other MPs to shoot down the budget may this time round spur the government to factor affirmative action into the budget to support the area.
“Let’s agree that the budget will not pass if the government does not set aside funds to address the problems in the area,” he said during the debate.
Many of the MPs, were particularly of the view that constituencies located in arable land should forgo their vote for water in favour of the ASALs. They also want the government to go slow on development of roads in other parts of the country and move its infrastructural machinery in the area to open it up for investments.
According to Dujis MP, Maalim Mohammed the existing roads in the vast lands were constructed by the colonial government with the locals donating camels and their young men to provide unskilled labour. Since then, successive post independence governments have done very little to improve their state.
Improving the state of existing roads in the area and constructing new ones will inevitably facilitate security operations in the area. Security forces will be able to access various parts to pursue cattle rustlers who take advantage on inaccessibility of the area to dodge away with their loot.
Last year the government launched a strategic plan based on the model of the infamous America’s Marshal Plan to develop ASALs but very little has been done because of inadequate resource allocations to the areas.
Apart from development of roads and airstrips to unlock the potential of the area, MPs from the area also want the government to employ affirmative action in recruitment of police and military officers to favour the area.
Despite, the gravity of insecurity in the area, they regret that the government has never considered recruiting more locals who know well the regions terrain and are psychologically prepared to handle security situation in the area.
During the last military recruitment, for example, of the 1,837 vacancies that were filled, the highest number of recruits came from Nakuru (94), Nyeri (82) and Machakos (66). Moyale on the other hand got 5, Ijara (4), Samburu (8) and Mandera (9).
Wajir East MP, Mohammed Abdi Mahamud, says the situation can only be corrected through affirmative action on employment to security forces since qualifications are way above that of many youth in the area.
“The only qualified employment our people can get is in the security forces but soon we will be left out on this one also given that even the police force has raised their admission grade to C- (minus), which our people cannot easily get,” he says.
Though there is clear goodwill in Parliament to assist people from these areas find peace that has eluded them for long, much will not be achieved if MPs from the region fail to put aside their interests and begin speaking with one voice on security issues.

Source: www.timesnews.co.ke