{UAH} Uhuru Kenyatta militarises police, Uganda-style - News - www.theeastafrican.co.ke
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Increasingly, President Uhuru Kenyatta is replicating the model that Uganda's Yoweri Museveni has fully exploited over the years by deploying military officers to run both covert and overt operations in the Internal Security docket, making it a fusion of army, police, civilian and political forces.
Since taking office in April last year, President Kenyatta has come to rely heavily on the military to act as the de facto police in the face of rising terror attacks and banditry in the country's north.
His recent appointments of high-ranking military men to head key security agencies are a continuing trend towards militarisation of Kenya's internal security.
Joseph Nkaissery, a retired major-general in the Kenyan army and an ODM member of parliament, was last Monday appointed to the Interior Ministry as Cabinet Secretary.
In August, the president appointed Major-General (Rtd) Gordon Kihalangwa to clean up endemic corruption in the country's Immigration department. Officials in this department have been accused of allowing illegal immigrants, including terrorists, into the country.
The following month, two former generals —Philip Kameru and Nelson Githinji — were appointed as heads of the National Intelligence Service (NIS) and the revamped National Youth Service (NYS).
This trend is, however far from spontaneous. Since Al Shabaab militants attacked Nairobi's Westgate mall in September 2013, there has been a systematic use of military assets and expertise on domestic security.
In response to public and opposition pressure over the state of security, Mr Kenyatta has overseen the largest deployment of the military in history, which has always been limited to at least five per cent at any time.
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