Probe police response to raid, say MPs

Recce squad officers during an operation in Nairobi on November 11, 2013. FILE PHOTO | JEFF ANGOTE |  NATION MEDIA GROUP

In Summary

• Asman Kamama accuses the government of lacking a concrete strategy to tackle terrorist attacks.

By NATION REPORTER
More by this Author

A parliamentary committee has asked President Kenyatta to order an audit of the security response to the terrorist attack in Garissa.

At the same time, Committee on National Security chairman Asman Kamama said they would meet Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery over reports it took security officers eight hours to respond to the Garissa University College attack.

“We will be meeting with the country’s security team so that they can tell us what strategies they have put in place to ensure that any response does not go beyond one and a half hours,” he said.

LACK STRATEGY

Mr Kamama accused the government of lacking a concrete strategy to tackle terrorist attacks, saying it had not learnt from the Westgate attack in 2013.

He said some of the lapses witnessed during the Westgate attack were repeated in Garissa, with apparent slow response giving the terrorists time to cause as much damage as possible.

Among the measures the committee is planning to recommend to the top security chiefs on combating terror attacks is ensuring that transport is readily available to the security squads.

The committee says officers should be ferried to scenes of terrorist attacks by aircraft.