MONDAY, MARCH 24, 2014

We have a war on our hands; it must be fought with everything we possess

GSU officers at the scene of the Joy in Christ Church, Likoni, where the attackers killed two people on the spot and injured eight others in this picture taken on 23 March 2014. PHOTO: Laban Walloga/NATION  

In Summary

  • The extremist branch of Islam has grown into hydra-headed monster, from a small lunatic fringe into a powerful force that has the  even the moderate religious and political leaders from the community running scared.
  • We have adequate laws and mechanisms to fight terrorism without breaking the law.
By Macharia Gaitho
More by this Author

Once again, we have to confront the threat of terrorism in our midst. Officials want to put a soft spin on the dastardly Sunday morning attack on a Mombasa church, but nobody can convince me that gunmen raiding a service and indiscriminately mowing down worshippers could be an act of "ordinary" crime.

Whether it be to the scale of major incidents like the 1980 Norfolk Hotel bombing, the 1998 US embassy suicide bomb, the 2002 Paradise Hotel attack, and the Westgate shopping Mall assault last year; or the numerous grenade and gun attacks in Nairobi, Mombasa, Garissa, Mandera, Wajir and other places, the fact is that we have become a soft target for terrorists out to disturb our easygoing way of life.

This situation might well be of our own making. So consumed are we with endless politics that we pay scant attention to what clearly is becoming a state of permanent insecurity.

For many years, we boasted our position as an "island of peace" in turbulent region. Refugee camps in peaceful Kenya were bursting at the seams, but the way things are going, it might not be long before traffic starts going in the opposite direction and Kenyans trek out to look for peace and security in Uganda, Ethiopia and Rwanda.

For many years, we tended to look the other way as terrorists built up their local support networks. We have known all along that the Al Qaeda network operating out of the Middle East and its local Al-Shabaab affiliate based in Somalia have targeting Kenya.

OBVIOUSLY IN VAIN

From early last decade when the media delved into the activities of expatriate clergy from Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Pakistan who were turning specific madrasas and mosques in Nairobi, Mombasa and Garissa into recruitment and indoctrination centres for the warped theology of Islamic extremism, the security and State administration apparatchik at the Office of the President always urged us to "go slow".

They were aware of what was happening, but were afraid to confront it in way that would upset the delicate relationship between State and religion, as well as inter-religious harmony.

All that effort was obviously in vain as the extremist branch of Islam has grown into hydra-headed monster, from a small lunatic fringe into a powerful force that has the  even the moderate religious and political leaders from the community running scared.

The Sunday morning attack on the Joy of Jesus Church in Likoni where six innocent worshippers were killed must serve as a wake-up call.

It is useless to crow about the success of Kenyan military in subduing Al-Shabaab in its bases across the border in Somalia, when Kenyans at home are under increasing danger of being slaughtered by crazed terrorists who no longer even remember what they are fighting about.

By all means the war against Al-Shabaab in Somalia must be pursued as a national and regional security imperative, but that does not mean letting down our guard on the home front.

We cannot sit and wait and wait for terrorists to hit us and then come out with impotent warnings.

SHORTCUTS OF CORRUPT OFFICIALDOM

The police and all other security organs must end the casual and lax approach and come out with all barrels blazing.

All available firepower must be deployed without mercy at the terrorist infrastructure so that those who believe in murderous acts against innocent Kenyans are fast-tracked to the promised delights of the hereafter.

A word of caution though: This is not a call to extra-judicial executions and State terrorism.

I am all for murderers and other such miscreants being terminated with extreme prejudice, but not through shortcuts which corrupt officialdom can exploit to execute political foes, business competition or love rivals.

We have adequate laws and mechanisms to fight terrorism without breaking the law. Even the hogwash currently coming from sycophantic reactionaries that the liberal Constitution is responsible for growing insecurity does not wash. Let then look for other reasons to try and water down civil liberties.

Meanwhile, we have a war on our hands. It must be fought with no quarter given and no quarter asked.

A first step must be to take the axe to corruption and criminal lethargy in the State organs that allow terrorism to flourish.

The Police Service, Security Intelligence, border security, Immigration controls, National Identity Card and passports issuers, and other strategic organs and services cannot escape sanction for aiding and abetting terrorist activity.

We are at the mercy of the brigands because compromised officials refused to do their jobs and gave those with ill-intentions free rein to flourish in our midst.

THE VERY SEAT OF GOVERNMENT

We cannot lose sight of the fact that terrorism grows with the official indolence that contributes to the general breakdown of State security. For instance, heavily armed poachers have been given licence to roam our national parks and game reserves, decimating elephant, rhino and other protected species.

They report to godfathers with the influence to ensure free passage of illicit cargo past our airports and seaports to the extent that Kenya has become a key transit point for illicit game trophies from across Africa.

The same barons also control the trade in illegal narcotics, with psychotropic substances from Asia and South America again having free passage sea and air passage via Kenyan onwards to markets in Europe and the Americas.

Numerous studies have shown that the trade in illegal narcotics, game trophies and minerals – remember Kenya's reputation as a major exporter of gold, diamonds, coltan and other conflict minerals it hardly produces?—is closely linked and controlled by the same networks that also control the international trade in illegal arms.

Then the illicit trade supplies the arms and cash that terrorist groups use to prosecute their evil wars against innocent men, women and children.

The trade which supports terrorism is not found in Al-Shabaab camps in Kismayo, mosques in Mombasa and Garissa, among Somali immigrants in Nairobi's Eastleigh suburbs or the refugee camps in Dabaab; it is directed and controlled by the movers and shakers in the corridors of power, in the very seat of government.

So even as we direct our missiles at misguided youth in Mombasa, Nairobi and Garissa or terrorist infiltrators from Somalia, let us never forget for a moment that the real enemies, saboteurs and traitors lie within. We elected them.

mgaitho@nationmedia.com @MachariaGaitho

Related Stories

3 DAYS AGO

MATHIU: Are we just going to sit around and wait to be blown to bits by terrorists?

The plan is to blow up a building, then open fire and slaughter survivors.