The askari at your gate is a personal choice and can be defined as the implementation of a concept called "Defense in depth" which basically means that you opt not to rely on one security measure alone. This concept is optional and discretionary, for example, I don't have an askari at my gate because I am generally happy about the other measures that have been put in place by Govt, municipality and the neighborhood committee.

National security (the sole premise of Government) in this day and age guards against a myriad of actors such as violent non-state actors (this category includes terrorists), narcotic cartels, multinational corporations (believe it or not) and like it or not, non-governmental organisations.

Measures taken to ensure national security include:

using diplomacy to rally allies and isolate threats
marshalling economic power to facilitate or compel cooperation
maintaining effective armed forces
implementing civil defense and emergency preparedness measures (including anti-terrorism legislation)
ensuring the resilience and redundancy of critical infrastructure
using intelligence services to detect and defeat or avoid threats and espionage, and to protect classified information
using counterintelligence services or secret police to protect the nation from internal threats

On Thu, Mar 22, 2012 at 10:14 AM, McTim <dogwallah@gmail.com> wrote:

not really.

How can we agree that "preservation of security is the role of state
organs" when it is patently obvious that most properties in the
country need private guards?

rgds,

McTim

On 3/22/12, Brian Munyao Longwe <blongwe@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Thu, Mar 22, 2012 at 9:48 AM, McTim <dogwallah@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> On 3/22/12, John Kariuki <ngethe.kariuki2007@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
>> > Listers,
>> > If we agree that preservation of security is the role of state organs
>>
>> I think this is disproven by the fact that almost every property in KE
>> has at least one private askari!
>>
>
> I hope that was said tongue-in-cheek...
>
> --
> Brian Munyao Longwe
> e-mail: blongwe@gmail.com
> cell: +254715964281
> blog : http://zinjlog.blogspot.com
> meta-blog: http://mashilingi.blogspot.com
>
> "Give us clear vision that we may know where to stand and what to stand
> for, because unless we stand for something, we shall fall for anything."
>

--
Cheers,

McTim
"A name indicates what we seek. An address indicates where it is. A
route indicates how we get there." Jon Postel