[kictanet] Incompetence gallore--Offer solutions.

Wed Sep 25 15:48:47 EAT 2013

@Grace, 

Very well said.

@Adam,

Let us not be people who proudly proclaim our Kenyan-ness when the land and
its people are benefitting us and immediately claim other nationalities when
things go awry. Kenya is what it is, warts and all; corruption, is
unfortunately a way of life here. It will take a lot to eliminate the
culture. Your actions are a start (though don't you think talking yourself
out of a ticket is also a form of corruption even though not of the
pecuniary type?J). 

In these trying times, let us not extricate ourselves from previously
proclaimed Kenyan-ness and embrace our nationalities and "how well governed
Rwanda" is.  Nairobi could certainly do a lot better but it is also a
burgeoning metropolis grappling with attendant challenges. It definitely has
a much higher ranking internationally than its African peers.

John Masiwe

Business Development Director & CEO

Blue Gate Technologies Ltd - Professional and Quality ICT Services

4th Floor - Bishop Maigua Plaza (opp. Uchumi Hyper - Ngong Rd)

Ngong Road, Nairobi

P. O. Box 344 - 00600 Nairobi

Website: www.bluegate.co.ke          |              Email:
jmasiwe at bluegate.co.ke       |              Tel: 0725 24 88 00

From: kictanet
[mailto:kictanet-bounces+jmasiwe=bluegate.co.ke at lists.kictanet.or.ke] On
Behalf Of Grace Githaiga
Sent: Wednesday, September 25, 2013 11:28 AM
To: jmasiwe at bluegate.co.ke
Cc: kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Incompetence gallore--Offer solutions.

I agree with Yawe!  Let us not loose the opportunity to suggest solutions
because this may not be the last time that we are seeing this sort of
senseless attack. 

People, we will exhaust ourselves with blame! Can we for once imagine the
difficulty of the circumstances in which our security were working? Do we
for example have an idea  of the countless such raids that have either been
foiled or minimized? I remember there was an alert that shopping malls would
be attacked. Was this  like two years ago? People, let us remember that even
in the highly secured cctv'd and over-resourced US, gunmen still walk into
nursery schools and cinema halls and randomly shoot everyone. Seriously, how
is one expected to predict the actions of mad men and a woman? And like a
friend of mine has asked me "who would have known that a four year old boy
calling a gunman "a bad man" in his face would halt his shooting, produce
please of forgiveness from the gunmen, free passage for the boy, sister and
mother and even more, the departing gift of Mars bars for the kids from the
gunman?"

As we heap tons and tons of blame, let us  remember that  just as a doctor
losses a patient/botches up a surgery or an editor runs with a graphic lead
photo thinking he is telling the "real" story rather than repulsing his
readers - there will always be unfortunate lapses, errors of judgement and
plain blunders even in a security intelligence job. What solutions are we
offering? We need to move from 'if only' to solutions of preparedness. 

Solutions, solutions and more solutions! 

Rgds

Grace

  _____  

From: dmbuvi at gmail.com
Date: Wed, 25 Sep 2013 00:18:08 -0700
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Incompetence gallore
CC: kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke
To: ggithaiga at hotmail.com

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

  _____  

From: robert yawe <mailto:robertyawe at yahoo.co.uk> 
Sent: 25/09/2013 08:29
To: Dennis Kioko Mbuvi <mailto:dmbuvi at gmail.com> 
Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <mailto: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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