Army general named Kenya’s new spy chief

Gordon Kihalangwa (second right) addresses the press at an army recruitment centre in Eldoret in this file photo. PHOTO | FILE

What you need to know:

  • In his capacity, Mr Kihalangwa will attend sittings of the National Security Advisory Committee, the second topmost security organ in Kenya.
  • Mr Kihalangwa holds doctorate degree in International Studies and Diplomacy.
  • He replaces Ms Jane Waikenda who was posted as the deputy head at Kenya’s High Commission in Pretoria, South Africa. 

Major-General Philip Kameru has been named to replace Maj-Gen Michael Gichangi as the Director-General of National Intelligence Service (NIS).

He will take office in about a fortnight, if his appointment is approved by the Parliamentary Committee on Defence and Foreign Relations.

Maj-Gen Kameru inherits a spy service criticised by police as providing information that is “too general” to be acted on.

But there are deeper problems with Kenya’s security infrastructure, among them lack of coordination between the various services.

Also, the spy service is non-executive as it is only advisory. Maj-Gen Kameru will have to contend with high public expectations that he will be able to put to an end frequent terror attacks and restore security.

The true state of NIS, in terms of skills and work force motivation, is largely unknown to the public as its work is secret.

Only seamless functioning of NIS and police can secure the country, with the spies providing the relevant information and the police either deterring or arresting and successfully prosecuting,

POOR WORK

Inspector General of Police David Kimaiyo has maintained that what they get regarding terror is mainly “general information of possible attacks on key installations in the country”.

The Directorate of Criminal Investigations boss Ndegwa Muhoro has also accused the NIS of the same. When he appeared before the Task Force on Tana River Killings, Mr Muhoro said that although they were regularly issued with intelligence reports, they were too general to be acted upon.

Police have their own criminal and anti-terrorism intelligence resources, although it is not known what quality of information they generate.
Mr Muhoro heads a directorate that has departments — Anti-terrorism Police Unit, Ballistics Unit, Special Crime Prevention Unit, Criminal Intelligence Unit — which deal with terrorism and other serious crimes.

The naming of the new director has not gone down well with senior officers at NIS. Already, some of them feel that preference has always been given to military officers.

The new boss will therefore have to cultivate good working relations with his directors to succeed.

Runaway corruption has also been a challenge to the spy agency. This has in some cases strained the relationship between its officers and other agencies.

Early this year, President Kenyatta said he was aware of the cases of corruption involving detectives from the police department, and among registration and Immigration officials, which had made it easy to buy citizenship.

The Counter Terrorism Unit (CTU) of the NIS had earlier complained that some of the reports they gave were instead used to extort money from the suspects.

Perhaps to clear his name, Maj-Gen Gichangi offered to testify in public last September before the Defence and Foreign Relations Committee.

However, committee chairman Ndung’u Gethenji rejected the proposal.

TERROR ATTACKS

NIS had insisted that they had given advance warning of the Westgate Mall attack to the police and CID bosses. The agency claimed some senior officers within the Office of the President were deliberately suppressing intelligence reports.

Police have also been accused of laxity in deterring terror attacks, despite the intelligence issued.

In January, for instance, the country’s top security advisory organ warned Mr Kimaiyo and then Interior PS Mutea Iringo against failing to safeguard key installations in the country.

The memo, dated January 30, was prompted by reports that key installations in the country were likely to be hit. “To date, there is no evidence of the recommended deployment. One of the major strategies of ensuring security is deterrence and one way of achieving deterrence is through the show of force, that is, visibility of deployment,” the memo read.
President Kenyatta submitted Maj Gen Kameru’s name to Parliament yesterday after a meeting at State House, Nairobi.
The announcement of Maj-Gen Kameru’s nomination came after Speaker Justin Muturi passed to the Defence committee the names of 24 nominations and appointments to the diplomatic service.
It was evident that the nominations and appointments would become the subject of much debate as the Jubilee Coalition applauded, with their feet on the floor, the names as they were read out.
Cord MPs were not excited by the news.