On the Parliamentary Committee Report on the Westgate Attack

Since 2010, there have been at least 30 terrorist attacks in the country, with a majority of the attacks occurring post Kenya’s Somalia intervention. While in this light the Westgate attack was only one of many, it is that attack that has by far received the most international and national attention. Following it the National Assembly set up a Joint Committee to investigate and report on all matters surrounding the attack, as well as make recommendations on preventative measures and steps to be to improve the internal security.

Given the varying accounts of the terrorist attack in the media with regards to fatalities, causalities and even the number of the terrorists involved in the attack, one hopes the parliamentary report will shed some light not only the attack, but the on the structural and institutional failures that led up to it. 

The committee held a total of 20 meetings the summoning the National Intelligence Service, the Ministry of Interior, the Inspector General of Police, the Ministry of  Defence, the Department of the Immigration, the Departments of Refugee Affairs among others - to appear before it.

Approximately 3 months from its first sitting in September 2013 the committee has published its full report.

According to the report, 67 people were killed and 200 injured in the attack, 4 terrorists were shot and killed, 4 accomplices have been arraigned and 5 suspects remain at large, it is interesting to note that these numbers are at variance with the numbers in the press.

The report further highlights the fact that the country’s National Security machinery had received warnings regarding the impending attack, and notes the general laxity by the police over terror warnings.

It is interesting to note that while the Parliamentary reports a, “nationwide systemic failure on the part of the Immigration Services Department, Department of Refugee Affairs; and Registration of Persons Department attributed to corruption at the border control points and registration centres, mainly in Nairobi, Coast and North Eastern area,” it leaves out failures in national security bodies.

The report confirms what every Kenyan knows that Kenya is still susceptible to terror attacks. The Committee attributes this susceptibility to political factors, specifically Kenya’s relationship with the United States, porous borders, corruption particularly with regards to immigration, low levels of preparedness, proliferation of small and light weapons, youth radicalisation, and the refugee problem.

Recommendations the Parliamentary Committee makes in response, include a whole gamut of legislative, institutional and structural reforms including:

• Declaring war against al Shabaab wherever they are. That the war against terrorism should be intensified within and outside the country.
• Investigating lapses in the country’s security agencies
• The establishment National Inter-Agency Co-ordination Center (Directorate of National Security) and well trained and well equipped Special Rapid Response Commandoes to respond to emergency situations
• Radical surgery in the Department of Immigration Services. As well the holding the Department of Immigration Services, the Registration of Persons Department, the National Registration Bureau and the Department of Refugee Affairs accountable for compromising national security.
• Repealing of the Refugee Act of 2006
• Closure of Dadaab (Daghale, Ifo, Ifo II, Hagdera, Kambios) and Kakuma Refugee Camps and return of resident refugees repatriated to their country of origin
• Fast tracking of the National Disaster Management Policy

The Report will be one of the issues before the National Assembly when it resumes sitting in February.

Find the full report here.

Posted by Mzalendo Editor on Jan. 24, 2014

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