Mr President,
In the toxic political environment that Kenya finds itself in, it is foolhardy for a government supporter like me to ask hard questions of your leadership. Whatever I say will be lurched on by the opposition as evidence of massive disenchantment in Jubilee, while ardent supporters of your administration will dismiss me as a despicable turncoat. Any possible sense that I may speak will get lost in the melee between the two sides.
Yet, even in these circumstances one must try – for love of country, if nothing else – to raise his voice above the partisan din that so divides the nation. It is as much as any patriot can do, to try to speak truth to power about issues that threaten our nationhood.
Nothing at the moment, in my mind, presents a starker and more dangerous existential threat to Kenya than the Al Shabaab menace. In the last 12 months alone, we have seen just how devastating this threat can be. From the massacre in Al Adde to the more recent attacks in Kolbiyow and Mandera, and even the earlier outrages in Westgate and Garissa, it is now clear that Al Shabaab is determined to destroy our beloved Kenya.
Given this reality, the least one expects is that all instruments of state would be committed to meet this threat head on with the objective of neutralizing it, or at the very least minimizing its damage to the Kenyan nation. In this response, Kenyans expect that the full weight of critical state security organs – intelligence, police, and the military – is brought to bear in a coordinated and effective manner that is both professional and dedicated
The security assets Kenya possesses make this imminently possible. The country has one of the biggest security budgets on the continent, with the military and intelligence sectors accounting for more than $3 billion in both appropriations and aid. In the sky we have a fairly competent air-force with F-5 fighter jets and ground-support platforms such as helicopters and Short Tucanos.
On the ground, our army is well-equipped and trained, including formations of Special Forces, while at sea we have a credible naval capability to defend our shores.
In the circumstances, Mr President, we must ask ourselves the hard questions; why does Al Shabaab – basically a rag-tag outfit that rides into battle in Landcruiser pick-ups with men wearing T-shirts - keep getting the better of us? How does a militia that has no air support, armoured vehicles, drones, howitzers or even body armour over-run our Forward Operating Bases (FOBs) and massacres our gallant soldiers?
The military and the intelligence community would like us to believe that they are doing all they can to neutralize the Al Shabaab threat. And truth be said, the simple privates and sergeants on the ground in Somalia and north-eastern probably are – their very lives depend on it.
But even to the untrained, sir, there is something suspiciously amiss – probably criminally and treasonably negligent - somewhere up the ladder. I fail to understand, for example, why it would take eight hours to offer air support to a besieged platoon of 120 soldiers just 18 kilometres inside Somalia. It takes a pair of armed and fueled F-5s from Mombasa less than 15 minutes to fly to Kolbiyow, and about 30 minutes for armed helicopter gunships to make the trip.
It also beggars belief that an army that is fighting deep in enemy territory does not have the humint and electronic intelligence to know when large-scale attacks on its bases are eminent. Where do all the tens of millions of dollars to our intelligence services go if not to pay informers and listen in to Al Shabaab communications? How can 600 fighters gather in the vicinity of a FOB without being detected, when a simple civilian drone which can be adapted to military use with night vision costs less than Sh500,000?
During the Al Adde attack, it emerged that the camp’s sole communication tool was a single mast that was taken out at the very beginning, leaving the soldiers there isolated. In this day and age of satellite and even cellular phone technology, why didn’t the military establish what is called secondary or redundant capacity – alternative channels of communication incase the main one failed? Is our military-intelligence formation that incompetent, Mr President, or are commanders just non-caring?
Even worse, Mr President, how can Al Shabaab militants perennially attack our border towns, on our own soil, with impunity? Where is the intel rom all the hundreds of Somali herders and traders (informants) NIS supposedly pays to give us blow-to-blow updates on Al Shabaab movements?
How come, with such a competent air-force, we have not taken down Al Shabaab’s propaganda radio station? How can it be our cyber-security units have not hacked and brought down the insurgent group’s websites? Mr President, where is the pro-active and innovative response of a competent military-intelligence structure to the threat which we now face?
Sir, I would beg of you to ask this of your commanders; how can FOBs be established deep in the bush without the requisite protective perimeters such as ditches and barriers to protect against VBIEDs? How can a soldier with just a rifle be expected to fight against a VBIED loaded with 1,000 kilos of explosives?Why were the lessons of El Adde not applied in Kolbiyow?
I can go on and on and on, Mr President.
Suffice to say, sir, that one would expect that a professional and patriotic security establishment would learn from its mistakes – like putting soldiers in Al Adde in the open under red plastic sheeting and calling it a FOB; or the debacle at Westgate where units shot at each other; or even Garissa University where it took 10 hours to fly in a SWAT team – to establish protocals and response parameters that limit threat and improve effectiveness.
Any military or security establishment that does not adopt to evolving threats is doomed.
Sir, the current state of affairs, where we seem to lurch from defeat to defeat at the hands of stoned loonies is unconscionable and totally unacceptable. It saps the energy and optimism of the country. That it is happening under your watch diminishes your presidency.
Sir, even to my un-military mind it seems that the decision-makers at the military, the police and the intelligence services - your commanders - have been criminally- and treasonably negligent at this the moment of greatest need in the fight against Al Shabaab. They all seem to suffer from the chronic lack of patriotism and professionalism that so afflicts the nation. They are detached, un-innovative and totally out of their depth.
If I was less gracious, I would say they incompetently corrupt, using the resources of state not to secure the nation but to build themselves apartment blocks, malls and hotels in the cities while junior soldiers and policemen die horrible deaths in explosions and hellish gun-fights in Somalia and at the border.
Sir, let me illustrate. For decades, Israel, a small nation of just 5 million has warded off hordes of invaders through absolute dedication and commitment of its armed forces and intelligence, fighting wars where the odds were often 20 to one. On all occasions, Israel has triumphed.
Mr President, I hang my head in shame when my beloved Kenya – a country of 45 million – allows its soldiers and citizens to be butchered like chicken by Khat-chewing loonies. And especially so when the commanders of these same soldiers somehow turn out to be some of the richest people in Kenya. Did they go to military school to learn about business, or how to prevent VBIEDs breaching bases? Your guess is as good as mine, Mr President.
This is why I would like to ask you sir, as my president and leader, as the commander-in-chief, to require of the security establishment a new, binding commitment to Kenya. Your generals and other commanders must either shape up or ship out. They must serve Kenya or go serve themselves out of the military and intelligence services.
As the president you must ask these fatcats, why are my soldiers in Somalia sleeping under red plastic sheeting with no defences against VBIEDs (a simple ditch dug by a bulldozer all round, or heavy boulders strewn strategically would suffice) when the military and the intelligence departments have a budget exceeding $1.24 BILLION?
Why can we not tell when Al Shabaab is about to attack Mandera when NIS gets over Sh1 billion to pay informants?
Why do we always respond to attacks 10 hours late? Why is Radio Andalus still on air when we have an airforce? Why is it we have never ever leveraged our intel and military assets to carry out decapitation missions against Al Shabaab on our borders and deep inside Somalia? How come we have not stopped the funding of Al Shabaab by sympathisers in Kenya?
Mr President, you must require results of your all commanders. My own suspicions are that they have grown fat and indolent over the years, and are too busy accumulating property to care. But now our boys – our hope and pride – are dying in unprecedented numbers at the hands of a blood-thirsty horde. My pride in nation and country is diminishing. This is untenable and unacceptable.
Sir, I besiege you; be the commander you are supposed to be, Mr President. Be a war president.
Be the commander-in-chief, and save the nation from this ignominy and pain.
Yours faithfully,
[SIZE=6]Field Marshal CouchPotato
Guka[/SIZE]
