Summit ‘has boosted police image’

Police chiefs have spoken about the security lessons learnt during the visit by US President Barack Obama last week.

Deputy Inspector-General Grace Kaindi said a definite command, in which all units involved were placed under one senior officer, ensured there was no confusion and hitches during the three-day entrepreneurship summit.

The task was given to Assistant Inspector-General of Police Benson Kibui, who was allowed unhindered communication with his American counterpart.

The organisation was top notch, miles ahead of a broken down command structure of the police marred by chaos, indiscipline and insubordination that was exclusively exposed by the Nation just weeks the summit.

“In this case, the county commander (Mr Kibui) issued the operational order to officers in Nairobi, together with other personnel who came from outside the city, including National Youth Service, Kenya Prisons and other formations,” said Ms Kaindi, who is in charge of Kenya Police.

The Operational Order is a security parlance for a brief detailing the situation at hand and what is expected of each unit to undertake it.

According to Ms Kaindi, everything went according to plan. “I can therefore say I have very professional officers under me. Before undertaking the task we went through the order with our friendly partners (US agents) and they gave every aspect a tick. Their only request was that they be paired with the GSU at the core,” she said.

She was referring to the different security rings thrown around a VIP, and in this case the core meant the US Secret Service agents and GSU officers stationed closest to President Obama.

Officers, who were deployed from outside Nairobi, had to leave their stations weeks in advance to “familiarise themselves with the new environment”.
Besides, Ms Kaindi said, endless rehearsals were conducted on a daily basis.

The Director of Operations at Vigilance House, the Kenya Police headquarters, said the bomb squad and the Presidential Escort unit officers were also deployed at the inner core.

She said working shoulder to shoulder with the Americans has boosted the morale of the officers.

“Everybody is very proud. We can work seamlessly with any agency and maintain those international standards,” she said.

In total, the Americans occupied 15 city hotels and police officers were deployed for guard duties in each of them.

While Ms Kaindi is in charge of the day to day operations of the Kenya Police, Inspector -General Joseph Boinnet ensures all policies and security council directives are implemented.

Mr Boinnet had earlier told AFP that the presidential visit was a security “nightmare.”

“My nightmare was that someone might sneak in and do something nasty,” he said, referring to fears of attacks by Al-Shabaab militants. “We actually surprised ourselves,” Mr Boinnet said, asserting that security officers were able to keep up with the demands of the US Secret Service.