@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@bluegate.co.ke | Tel: 0725 24 88 00
From: kictanet [mailto:kictanet-bounces+jmasiwe=bluegate.co.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of Grace Githaiga
To: jmasiwe@bluegate.co.ke
Sent: Wednesday, September 25, 2013 11:28 AM
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@gmail.com
Date: Wed, 25 Sep 2013 00:18:08 -0700
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Incompetence gallore
CC: kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke
To: ggithaiga@hotmail.comA 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 PhoneFrom: robert yawe
Sent: 25/09/2013 08:29
To: Dennis Kioko Mbuvi
Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions
Subject: [kictanet] Incompetence galloreEditorial 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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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.