I have recently read a leaked report prepared by the National Security Intelligence Services (NSIS) which amongst others warned of an imminent terrorist attack on diverse dates between 5th – 21st September, that eventually panned out with the Westgate attack. The leak coming so soon after Westgate and the hammering that the intelligence community in Kenya has taken for seeming laxity on the job, it is rather obvious who the source of the leak was but that is the subject for another day. The report concluded that Kenyans were not aware of and did not report anything suspicious and hence it occurs to me that we need some education on what constitutes suspicious characters, behaviors and so on.
Ever since the Westgate attack, I am seeing suspicious characters lurking at every corner. Or is it just my over fertile imagination working overtime with a previously unknown zealousness to spot anything suspicious? I am seeing them as they drive past me in their heavily tinted cars, leaf and coil springs sagging under the weight of something unseen but obviously heavy. I am seeing them as they carry their backpacks and rucksacks contents hidden from prying eyes and I am also seeing them as they push heavily laden ‘mkokotenis’ and bicycles along our roads.
I am also seeing suspicious characters as they drive their pickups and trucks past me the mysterious cargo in their truck beds covered in a tarpaulin or protected by a closed container. Could it be that under that load of whatever they are carrying there could be a cache of arms or explosives? I see them in their sand carrying trucks under which sand could be a lethal dose of RDX, TNT or any other explosive or chemical weapon ready to blow up innocent Kenyans at its next stop.I also see them idly standing at street corners waiting for God knows what, as well as at the entrances to construction sites. But hang on could they just be job seekers waiting for that all-important masonry job or even plain clothes policemen keeping an eye out for security reasons?
I see them as they leave their bulging bags at the left luggage counters of the supermarket and I see them as they go about the business of nation building striding from one side of the city to the other surely on a surveillance mission and I also see them at the Mpesa agent and at the ATM points withdrawing or depositing money for their nefarious purposes. I see them in that primary school boy who looks older than an ordinary 13 year old should look school bag slung over his shoulder trying to look innocuous and I see them with a sling around their arm or a bandage across their skulls for surely they must have received those injuries as they threw their grenades and shot at those battle hardened women and children at Westgate.
I see them with a bulge somewhere in the region of their armpit for surely that is a holstered firearm ready to dispatch me to my maker. Or surely that person in the hardware store purchasing nails and fertilizer can only be doing it to construct a fertilizer bomb as effective as any explosive when mixed in the correct ratio of ingredients.
Or what of those ‘burkha’ and ‘buibui’ clad ladies? Surely that one walks like a man masquerading as a woman so as to escape my eagle eye as he surveys where next to strike. What about that car left by the roadside so close to that petrol station? It can only mean one thing, a possible carload of explosives about to be blown up and the proximity to the petrol station will add fuel to the fire and the subsequent havoc.
I see suspicious characters everywhere just waiting to unleash mayhem and terror on me and the rest of the Kenyans for we have been promised fire and brimstone and a bloody war by Al-Shabab if the Kenya Defence Forces do not exit Somalia immediately so that they can continue with their reign of terror and continue to collect illegal taxes from a ravaged people to finance their heinous campaigns of horror as they enforce their own brand of sharia law.
But what can I do since I am ill trained to know what is or is not suspicious as I have been told countless times by the police officers and now by the NSIS. Should I report all my suspicions to them? What if we all report our suspicions to the police? Are they equipped to handle all such reports that we make to them? If they dedicate the entire police force to handle suspicious reports will they really get anything else done and will they really manage to sieve facts from fiction and from personal vendetta and pure biases among people?
I agree that we all need to be aware of what constitutes a suspicious ………………….....anything but do we have the resources to manage the whole process?
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