Hiiraan Online

Inspector General David Kimaiyo

In the confidential memo, the country’s top security advisory organ said Interior Affairs Principal Secretary Mutea Iringo and Inspector-General of Police David Kimaiyo had not safeguarded key government buildings and installations from terror attacks.

Secretary to the Cabinet Francis Kimemia, who also chairs the National Security Advisory Committee, noted in the memo dated January 30, 2014 and stamped “secret” that the two had failed to act despite recommendations from his team.

“To date, there is no evidence of the recommended deployment. One of the major strategies of ensuring security is deterrence and one way of achieving deterrence is through the show of force i.e visibility of deployment,” he said.

Perhaps acting in the face of intelligence reports showing that Al-Shabaab militants were planning attacks across the country, Mr Kimemia urged Mr Iringo and Mr Kimaiyo to deploy either General Service Unit or Administration Police officers to guard major government buildings and installations.

“This is therefore to request you to move with speed and implement the above recommendations as advised by NSAC,” he said in the letter which was also copied to Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph ole Lenku and Chief of Staff Joseph Kinyua.

HIGH ALERT

Security agents in the country have been placed on high alert after local intelligence agencies and the 2014 US Global Threat Assessment Report indicated that attacks being planned in Kenya and other countries, which have troops in Somalia, could target government buildings and other installations.

Last Friday — three days after the memo was sent — Mr Kimaiyo said that security had been beefed up in the areas identified as potential targets.

“We have our intelligence reports and have enhanced security across the country for some time now. It is not as a result of the warning issued on Wednesday,” he said.

In his memo, Mr Kimemia’s team recommended that security be deployed at key installations along Harambee Avenue, Parliament Road, Tumbo Street and parts of Haile Selassie Avenue.

NSAC, he said, had proposed that the officers be drawn from the GSU or the Rapid Deployment Unit of the Administration Police.

Among the key installations targeted for enhanced security were Parliament Buildings, Harambee House where the Office of the President is located, BP&Shell Building which houses the Office of the Deputy President, Sheria House and Jogoo ‘A’ House where Mr Kimaiyo sits.

Others were the Old Treasury Building, the Treasury Building, the Central Bank Building and Vigilance House, the police headquarters.

AIRPORTS AND EMBASSIES ON THE READY

Already, airports, especially the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, have introduced tougher security measures which require that all vehicles be stopped and searched at entry points while the occupants should alight for frisking.

One embassy on the outskirts of the city centre also wrote to the police requesting enhance security. In its letter, the embassy said it feared that some of its interests in the Horn of Africa and in East Africa could be targeted by terrorists.

Said part of the letter: “This Embassy received warning that the terrorists group Al-Shabaab is preparing an armed terrorist attack... The Embassy therefore requests the relevant Kenyan authorities to immediately strengthen and enhance the security of the embassy’s compound.”