PHOTO | SALATON NJAU Inspector General David Kimaiyo (right) flanked by CID Director Ndegwa Muhoro during a press conference on the security situation in the Country at his Jogoo House office in Nairobi on October 23, 2013. NATION MEDIA GROUP
In Summary
Inspector-General of Police David Kimaiyo is no doubt the most prominent jakuodho of the week in Kenya considering his reaction to the breath-taking expose by KTN’s Jicho Pevu crew of how the so-called multi-agency security response at Westgate was bungled.
The police might yet be forced to back off and dodge fire from a battle-ready media industry finally learning the hard way that they have to forge a common front or risk further erosion of the freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution in the wake of Mr Kimaiyo’s assault.
The period after the 2007 elections particularly has not been a glorious one for the Kenyan media with reporters practising mute journalism and newsrooms relying on party activists and mistresses for ‘scoops’.
By Otieno Otieno
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My people say jakuodho oyie dhawo (he or she who breaks the wind is fast to pick a fight) to describe the tendency for guys out to cover up something to react irritably or even violently.
Inspector-General of Police David Kimaiyo is no doubt the most prominent jakuodho of the week in Kenya considering his reaction to the breathtaking expose by KTN’s Jicho Pevu crew of how the so-called multi-agency security response at Westgate was bungled.
The CCTV footage, which has since run on scores of other local and international TV channels, suggests that the four-day terrorist siege on the upscale Nairobi shopping mall that left 67 people officially dead and hundreds injured last month was executed by only four men with lots of time to spare.
It also appears to confirm earlier reports of looting by the security people with some soldiers seen spectacularly holding a white paper bag with one hand and a heavy gun with the other.
Clearly, it is the kind of embarrassing video that the security chiefs would rather have buried deeper in the growing heap of classified information than shown on prime time news to a people who had been made to believe the heroism of the disciplined forces and whipped into a near trance through patriotic propaganda.
STRONG-ARM ANTICS
Caught out by an excellent piece of investigative journalism, the clueless Inspector-General resorted to strong-arm tactics, summoning KTN journalists Mohammed Ali and John-Allan Namu and The Standard Group chief executive Sam Shollei to record statements at the Directorate of Criminal Investigations.
The police might yet be forced to back off and dodge fire from a battle-ready media industry finally learning the hard way that they have to forge a common front or risk further erosion of the freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution in the wake of Mr Kimaiyo’s assault.
But if and when the ceasefire is called, the media may want to evaluate their own role in cultivating a culture of fear in society that encourages the likes of Mr Kimaiyo to come out and issue absurd threats without batting an eyelid.
There is a sense out there that we have in the past not got angry enough at obvious transgressions by the State or powerful people like when then First Lady Lucy Kibaki stormed and laid a night-long siege on the Nation newsroom in 2004; hooded gunmen raided the Standard and KTN offices, burnt copies of newspapers and carted off computers in a shameless display of State thuggery in 2006; and the State moved to ban live broadcasts after 2007 elections.
The period after the 2007 elections particularly has not been a glorious one for the Kenyan media with reporters practising mute journalism and newsrooms relying on party activists and mistresses for ‘scoops’.
We have been hugging the bear and we were always going to pay the price.
Otieno Otieno is chief sub-editor, Business Daily. Twitter: @otienootieno jkotieno@ke.nationmedia.com
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