[kictanet] Incompetence gallore

Wed Sep 25 17:14:31 EAT 2013

Thank you James.  Our friends here are comparing apples to oranges. Mother
Kenya is best despite all the challenges.  You cannot for example compare
China to India.  India may be stinking and more crime, but its people can
air their frustration as you doing in the list.  You cannot therefore
compare Kenya to Rwanda unless you are willing to change our constitution.
 There is a price for everything.  What nation states do is to weigh and
adopt to systems that allow indivisible rights to human kind.

The Westgate attack would have happened anywhere.  More than 30 attempts
were thwarted before this successful.  Let us not always think that grass
is always greener elsewhere.  Yes we have corruption but I can vouch for
the security team on this one.

Ndemo.

> Nairobi Homicides per 100,000 people = 4
>
> Memphis, Tennessee No.10 most dangerous US City Murders per 100,000 = 24.5
>
> Top 3 are Flint, Michigan (64.9 murders per 100,000 people), Detroit
> 54.6/1000 and New Orleans, Louisiana 53.5.
>
> With 4 per 100,00, I would say Nairobi, although has work that needs to be
> done, should be judged first and foremost on the nature of its society and
> hence these comparative figures...Lack of the 911, police equipment or
> vehicles, may not be the problem but the accomodating nature of this
> society...After all, American cities with more than enough emergency lines
> operators, vehicles and so on are suffering crime rates beyond the realm
> of
> Nairobians' imagination (More than 10 times).
>
> We are not equipped for terrorist attacks that we have learnt just like
> NYC
> learn with 9/11 where many firemen and policemen died rushing into the
> towers to aid, the important thing is what lessons to draw from here.
>
> Otherwise, for someone from say the US or UK which are highly
> individualistic societies may find the lack of sufficient patrol cars a
> problem but in a society where informal social support systems pervade
> every level of society like Kenya's calling the neighbour to help is
> usually enough.
>
> James
>
>
> On Wed, Sep 25, 2013 at 2:58 PM, Joe Murithi Njeru
> <joe.njeru at zilojo.com>wrote:
>
>>  Hello Adam,
>>
>> I agree with you on all the points below.
>>
>> The level of professionalism in certain parts of public sector is
>> diabolical.
>>
>> When I was in Kigali some time back, a kid told his father - who had
>> just
>> littered the street with a paper - that if he did not pick it up he
>> would
>> report him to the police...
>>
>> At iHub, I always pay City Council and ensure I get a receipt. Which I
>> promptly claim as a business expense.
>>
>> That helps reduce the tax I pay  Ceaser each year.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>  On 09/25/2013 11:03 AM, Adam Nelson wrote:
>>
>> I drove by a dead body this morning on the bypass between Wayaki way and
>> Grevillea Grove.  He was clearly beaten to death and been there for some
>> time.  We called an emergency line and ostensibly the police will come.
>> On
>> Ngong Rd across from Brew Bistro 2 weeks ago a boy was killed by a truck
>> and his body lay on the side of the street for 2 hours (Ngong Rd, one of
>> the busiest in town) before anybody official arrived at the scene.
>>
>>  How can it be expected that the Nairobi police handle one of the most
>> complex hostage crises of the decade when they can't even respond to a
>> dead
>> body on the side of a major thoroughfare within 2 hours?
>>
>>  I visited Kigali 3 weeks ago and what it made me realize is that it's
>> not an 'African thing' or a 'Developing World thing' that Nairobi is a
>> disaster.  It's a total lack of excellence at every level of government.
>>  Kigali is better run in every respect than Nairobi and for the most
>> part,
>> it just comes down to better management.
>>
>>  I'm not one for recriminations and at a time like this am mostly just
>> sad.  In the end, I'm an American and can't effect change here - it's up
>> to
>> Nairobians and Kenyans to say enough is enough and to demand that the
>> public safety system be reformed.
>>
>>  1. A 911 (or 999) emergency call center
>> 2. All police wearing ID numbers and equipped with a ticket book so they
>> can write tickets
>> 3. A new type of police with a different uniform that receive double pay
>> but will be fired if found guilty of corruption
>> 4. All police equipped with a mode of transportation (even just a
>> mountain
>> bike)
>> 5. All police equipped with a radio
>>
>>  Is this too much to ask of a city that bills itself as the capital of
>> anything?
>>
>>  -Adam
>>
>>   --
>> Kili.io - OpenStack for Africa: kili.io
>> Musings: twitter.com/varud <https://twitter.com/varud>
>> About Adam: www.linkedin.com/in/adamcnelson
>>
>>
>>  On Wed, Sep 25, 2013 at 10:18 AM, Dennis Kioko <dmbuvi at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>>   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 <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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>>
>>
>>
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>> sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and
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>>
>> --
>>
>> Regards,
>> Joe Murithi Njeru - Chief Executive Officer m: +254 722 787725
>> e: joe.njeru at zilojo.com <joe.njeru at zilojo.com?Subject=Hello>
>> w: www.zilojo.com
>> o: +254 20 2190873
>> Map: http://goo.gl/maps/9IVjt
>>
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>>
>>
>>
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>> The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform
>> for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and
>> regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT
>> sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and
>> development.
>>
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> The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform
> for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and
> regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT
> sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and
> development.
>
> KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors
> online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth,
> share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do
> not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.

University of Nairobi
Business School, Lower Kabete Campus