My conscience is clear, I try to do my best: Lenku

Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph ole Lenku is a man besieged.

Mr Lenku has come under intense criticism over his handling of security matters, as well as his competence to do the job he has been tasked with.

In what was his second toughest week in his tenure as Cabinet Secretary, Mr Lenku still wore a brave face and dismissed calls for his sacking, maintaining that he is the right man for the job.

Terrorists had struck at Mpeketoni, leaving death, destruction, blood and tears in their wake. The grief was intensified by a repeat attack that occurred in Kibaoni, about 10 kilometres away.

It did not help matters that – as President Uhuru Kenyatta would later say – there was intelligence about impending attacks. The scandal washed up to Mr Lenku’s doorstep and the mood was palpable when he, Inspector-General David Kimaiyo and Principal Secretary Mutea Iringo boarded a Kenya Air Force helicopter to Mpeketoni minutes after addressing the media at the Office of the President.

As the helicopter left the Wilson airport, Mr Lenku was in a pensive mood. He knew that Kenyans were angry. When it touched down at the Lake Kenyatta Primary School, the angry crowd that had been waiting surged towards the aircraft to partly welcome the minister and partly to vilify the security chiefs for failing to act.

His nightmare had begun.

Besides the Mpeketoni attacks that left at least 60 dead, Mr Lenku had also been in an ocean of problems when terrorists struck and killed at least 69 people at the Westgate Mall in September last year.

Mr Lenku, a father of four, says his family is the most affected when such incidents happen. The humiliation and insults he gets, he says, do not affect him. It is his family and friends, he says, that suffer.

“As much as I know I’m serving Kenyans diligently; such public uproar does not affect me. I can only draw lessons from them but cannot succumb to the pressure they exert on me,” he says.

DIE FOR MOTHERLAND

“I have made it clear, and I always remind them (family) that I am ready to die for Kenya,” he told the Sunday Nation.

The minister insists he is the right man for the job. He has exhausted his options in tackling insecurity.

Mr Lenku agrees that the intelligence apparatus in the country needs to be improved, but says Kenya must invest in technology if the country’s myriad security challenges are to be solved.

“It is a new world. Communication and surveillance technology will go a long way in solving our problems,” he says.

Perhaps so, but it is a week that Mr Lenku would rather didn’t happen.

Nothing, he says, upsets him more than politicians being used by other countries to cause mayhem in the country.

“I am at a level where I am protecting the country’s interests. I do not have time to engage in petty quarrels, I do not know how to pretend. I tell everybody the way things are,” he says.

But is he the right man for the job?

“What is comforting is that I have given it my best. I have done what is right and no matter what Kenyans say, the truth is that I have sacrificed more than they know,” he says. “Terror is real, but we struggle every day to do what we can.”

“Those who know me know I do not have a problem making decisions because I believe in justice and I have no baggage. I do not have to look back and ask ‘what if?’”

Radicalisation, according to him, has made it difficult to fight terrorism.

“We must go back to the family unit. Parents must sit with their children and teach them values because these are our future leaders,” he said.