In the face of grenade attacks, tough talk won't save us....

Since the country experienced the first grenade attack during campaigns for the new constitution in 2010, there has been a consistent rise in the number of attacks and the loss of life and property.

Such attacks have been witnessed in Nairobi, Garissa, Wajir, Mandera, Eastleigh and now Mombasa and about 30 people may have lost their lives while many others have been maimed for life due to the attacks.

Of all the places that have been attacked Nairobi seems to have a fare share of the unprecedented and cowardly aggression with such places as the Kampala coach bus station, Eastleigh and the Machakos country bus station having been attacked.

On its part, the Government has blamed every explosion on Somali’s Al-Shabab Islamic militia group. For that, it has promised not to “leave any stone unturned” in the investigations to unearth the perpetrators of the heinous acts. It says that the attacks are carried out because the Kenya Defence Forces are in Somalia pursuing the Al-Shabab and in a no retreat no surrender stance promises that it will hunt them down to the last man.

However, despite that tough talk and the no nonsense approach towards the faceless ones, no stone is ever turned and nobody is arraigned in court for the explosions and even if they are, they are soon let loose for lack of evidence.

I want to assume a worst case scenario given that the attacks have continued rocking the country and that promises of swift and quick investigations continue being made by Government officials who arrive at the scenes of crime guarded like the Pope by security guards who menacingly shove off everybody in a show of raw “Government power” Soon the promises that they make to arrest the culprits are forgotten once the dust settles down.

That brings me to an area of damage control called risk management. Simply put, risk management is the preparedness in handling uncertainties. Risk management assumes that whatever will go wrong will and therefore there is always need to be prepared. Preparedness here does not mean that there will be no effects in case of a happening but it serves to reduce the level of loss.

For this reason, there is no need for Government to continue in living in denial by assuming that the attacks are one-off activities of disgruntled elements and which will not recur. It is time that Government and other stakeholder’s stops behaving as if the country is not under any threat because the fact is that the people are not secure any more. There is need to put into place mechanisms in which the people are trained on how to behave when an explosion occurs.

What should be the first thing that a person should do whenever an explosion takes place near them, given that a majority of Kenyans will want to congregate at scenes regardless of the dangers posed. Which places should people avoid in case there has been an explosion and what are the places that they should call in case there are injuries?

It is my considered opinion that such action would be more important than tough talk from politicians and other government fat cats who have to spend thousands of shillings to come and tell the same clichés of no stones being left unturned and the culprits facing the full wrath of the law.

Secondly, the police and other security agencies should continue the initiative they had started of updating the people about imminent threats and which areas are prone to attacks with as much publicity as possible. This way the people will be constantly reminded of imminent threats and know what to do, which places to avoid and so on. Fact is when the people are attacked it is them who lose lives and not the cheap publicity looking and camera loving politicians

Ends………