[kictanet] Incompetence gallore

[Dennis Kioko]

  A Standard article explains how disorderly and dangerous the operation
was, Kenyans troops killed each other, and endangered the lives of hostages
in a haphazard operation.

The familiar shoot to kill order was given out http://t.co/M5tJ67KcPk

Sent from my Windows Phone
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From: robert yawe <robertyawe at yahoo.co.uk>
Sent: 25/09/2013 08:29
To: Dennis Kioko Mbuvi <dmbuvi at gmail.com>
Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
Subject: [kictanet] Incompetence gallore

Editorial from a Saudi Paper

   - Something wrong in Kenya

   There can be no denying the extraordinary challenges facing the Kenyan
   government. Yet as the last terrorists were being rooted out of Nairobi’s
   Westgate shopping mall at the end of a slaughter spree that has killed some
   70 people and injured hundreds more, the Kenyan authorities need to be
   asking themselves some hard questions.

   This is a country which because it is actively involved in combating
   Al-Shabab terrorists in Somalia is supposed to be on the very highest state
   of alert. Kenya did not choose this confrontation. In 1998 it was an
   amiably corrupt and easygoing country with merely a nasty record of armed
   robberies, mostly of rich Western tourists.

   Then Al-Qaeda launched one of its very first international attacks, a
   deadly assault on the US embassy in the Kenyan capital which left 224
   people dead the great majority of them Kenyans. Thereafter, there was a
   succession of small attacks by the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabab which
   culminated in raids on Kenyan coastal tourist resorts and a Somali refugee
   camp, targeting and kidnapping foreigners.

   It was the final straw. Nairobi sent troops into Somali striking
   Al-Shabab fighters in the rear as they were pressed from the north by
   African Union forces. Thereafter, the terrorists resorted to low-level
   violence, mostly hit and run grenade attacks across the Somali border,
   until the attack by some 15 heavily armed men on the supposedly
   well-guarded up-market Westgate shopping center. The attackers managed to
   negotiate their way with all their weaponry through the capital’s
   roadblocks. They contrived to organize their deadly assault without the
   Kenyan intelligence services picking up the slightest inkling of what was
   about to happen.

   Something has got to be wrong somewhere. And the closer one looks at the
   way the tragic events unfolded, the more difficult questions it seems that
   the Kenyan authorities have to answer. Why for instance did it take almost
   half an hour for the first properly armed and equipped teams to arrive at
   the shopping mall? Why was there no proper building evacuation scheme nor
   any obvious plan to respond to a terrorist outrage within the complex?

   Acts of bravery by shopping center staff, individual police officers and
   ordinary members of the public cannot mask what appears to have been a
   series of bungles by all those who should have been responsible for the
   safety of the complex and its visitors. Journalists noted that when
   heavily-armed special forces arrived, some seemed nervous and confused,
   perhaps as a result of the shouting that could be heard from senior
   officers who themselves seemed poorly briefed and unprepared and as a
   result unsure of how best to proceed. The inevitable report into this
   horrific event may find that by delaying a rapid and firm response to the
   attack, the authorities permitted the terrorists to continue their killing
   spree and also allowed them to consolidate their position within the mall.

   Perhaps a clue to what went so disastrously wrong at the Westgate mall
   can be found in the devastating fire at Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta
   International Airport last month. Though the blaze broke out in the early
   morning, meaning no one was killed, the extent of the fire and the
   extraordinary delays in getting fire appliances to the scene raised major
   questions about the competence of the Kenyan authorities. The Westgate
   tragedy must compound these serious concerns.
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