Urgently needed! A national anti-terror strategy

In the wake of increasing terror attacks and threats in different parts of the country, “experts” are crawling out of the woodwork with all sorts of suggestions on how to tackle the menace.

Among the most egregious statements made after the Garissa attack was one attributed to some sketchy agency in Nairobi which appeared to blame the murdered students for failing to fight back and overwhelm the terrorists.

They even came up with a plan advising any future victims not to just lie there and be killed “like cockroaches”.

Later on, more suggestions were made. All young people should be taken through paramilitary training, it was suggested.

Everyone should be armed by the state in order to protect themselves from terrorists, others said.

A video was recently circulated, giving potential terror victims the options to “hide, run or fight”, and suggestions made that this kind of training be made compulsory for everyone.

To my mind, these suggestions are all well-meaning and intended to improve our security and that of our children.

Unfortunately, though, they are uncoordinated and lack a coherent national framework.

For instance, they assume that terrorists are aliens who are different from us, who come from elsewhere to attack Kenyans. The truth of the matter is that today, most terror suspects are Kenyan and come from all corners of the country.

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They are in our universities, in our places of worship, in our political organisations and local shopping centres. They are our spouses, our sons and daughters, our relatives.

Whatever protective measures we put in place to protect “us” from terrorists will be known to them, and they will use the same measures against us. For instance, arming all adults will also arm the terrorists!

Clearly, then, there are no easy solutions to the terrorist problem. A national strategy needs to be thought out that takes into consideration the factors that promote the manufacture of local terrorists while facilitating the activities of foreign ones.

An obvious starting point is corruption. Through corruption, terrorists are able to plan and execute their attacks without worrying about being caught by law enforcement agents.

While the President recently appeared to act tough and ask his tainted public officers to “step aside”, subsequent actions suggest that it might have all been window-dressing.

The national anti-corruption authority today lies on its death-bed, and some of the tainted officials are back in office without so much as a slap on the wrist.

We all know that it is only a matter of time before the others resume duty, with declarations of being as white as snow.

The second avenue that requires to be addressed is the question of religion. Today’s terrorist operates under the cover of religion.

He justifies his antisocial behaviour using scribblings in some holy book or other. All this time, fellow practitioners of the same religion insist that their religion is one of peace.

It is time we demonstrated extreme intolerance to any displays of criminal behaviour, even if they are clothed in religious garb.

The state must monitor religious messages with clinical detachment, and punish anyone using religion to threaten or ostracise others.

This will rob current and future terrorists of one of their key defences, and make it that much more difficult for them to recruit our youth.

Prof Lukoye is Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Dean, Moi University School of Medicine [email protected]