Garissa University Massacre - Postscript

[Omollo]

• Tweet

There are some observations I wish to share. There is no order so bear with me.

1. I believe it was a mistake not to follow up on the Missing Students. It is simply put a dereliction of duty that poses current and future security risks. As pointed out elsewhere, these missing could be any of the following:
(a) Abductees taken away by the terrorists partly as human shields or Boko Haram like hostages
(b) Were part of an advance squad in charge of reconnaissance and preparations such as storage of arms
(c) Dead and secretly buried by Al Shabaab or GoK
(d) Fled in the dark night and have met varying fates. Could be alive or dead
(e) GUC had fake list of students to milk Funds from government

2. The Crime Scene was mishandled and evidence and intelligence wasted. How?
(a) Multiple people were allowed to enter and leave the site without any control as from information I have the scene was never cordoned off even after the terrorists had been overpowered and put out of action
(b) Civilians - in the usual police practice - were made to carry the dead on to trucks making any future trials rely on hearsay. Any terrorist pretending to be dead would have easily escaped especially if his own friends from outside volunteered to carry his body on to a red cross truck;
(c) There was no individual processing of the bodies on site and the clearing of the site seemed more urgent perhaps out of political pressure to put a stop to the crisis fast

3. The follow-up on survivors was not thorough enough. 
a. Why were they bused to Nairobi with pissing stopovers where people are left alone for the sake of privacy - ladies on one side and men on the other. I am sure there were no female security forces on the buses. So a guy disguised as a woman would simply not return on the bus after a short session in the bush as is customary on those long trips
b. A high powered team should have screened each survivor. Obtain his / her bio-metrics, compare the names given and those used; Ask others to identify and confirm; Check past academic record and verify background; Go to the home and check with neighbors and do a DNA to confirm relations. I tell you if somebody got in to that college with fake documents or impersonated the sister or a dead cousin, that is the day he / she would have been caught. Any corruption and short changing that might have arisen in admissions would come to the surface. This was never done. My information is that ID cards were all that was needed to check off the name from the list provided by the GUC administration.
4. Much as this has been unpopular with Jubilee supporters, I wish to repeat that it is stupid not to follow up on discrepancies in the number of those enrolled, present and absent. If there were students absent from college during the exams period, that should raise bloody red flags. Why did they choose that time to be absent? They should have been traced urgently. As vooke pointed out at choo.com (he dropped there briefly to relieve his priestly self - what a holy stench!) there is a high possibility that most of the students came from around the college by virtue of our highly tribalized country. Add to the fact that we now know the attackers were all Kenyan and you can understand why it is no longer important to fudge and play down figures.

I have some more. Let me take a break until after some comments

[Kadudu]

You are simply asking too much from our professional security services.
The points you have made are very sensible but this is Kenya where commonsense is a rare commodity.

[Omollo]

I get you. However we don't have to buy shares in their stupidity. At least it can be known that there those who know what could be done right.

I do not entirely blame the security forces. Not when you have university graduates being turned away from joining the police force because they are over-qualified. The force, it appears is deliberately starved of educated and intelligent personnel.

Kadudu, just a thought: Supposing Al Shabaab had thought ahead and either captured Garissa Air-strip or positioned themselves to shoot down any arriving planes. Did somebody say Nkaissery and Boinnet flew there? How secure is that airstrip? And if there was an attack going on at GUC, how many policemen stayed behind to secure the air-strip? Did they have bullet proof vests? Could they beat off a sudden Al Shabaab massive attack as Nkaissery landed?

You are simply asking too much from our professional security services.
The points you have made are very sensible but this is Kenya where commonsense is a rare commodity.

[Omollo]

Next is VENDETTA and Retribution
 In the wake of the GUM (Garissa University Massacre) the Government has launched a massive crackdown against perceived supporters of Al Shabaab. Here are some observations:
1. The initial list has been found to contains multiple glaring errors or false information. Many of the organizations blacklisted are bona fide registered businesses that have been vetted and conform to international standards. Here the government is opening itself to massive financial liability;
2. The list also contains human rights organizations that have been operating in Kenya for a long time and which have been a thorn in the flesh of the government for violations of human rights - especially Extra Judicial Executions (EJK), ethnic profiling, illegal imprisonments and corruption in the security forces. Thus it looks like the government using the crisis to hit out at opponents
3. Since then, the vendetta has expanded to target Somali owned businesses which have been in involved in Somali - Somali rivalry  or Somali - GEMA clashes. It looks like businessmen have seized on the GUM to settle scores with their rivals. The withdrawal of PSV licenses to Garissa opens the way for rival bus companies. This has nothing to do with fighting terrorism
4. There is massive ethnic profiling. Many Kenyans of Somali origin are being stopped and arrested at the flimsiest of the reasons. It began a few hours after the attack. There were reports of "terrorists stopped as they prepared to blow up a mall in Mombasa" and another in Nairobi etc. There are no details about the arrests. In the Mombasa case, it looked like somebody simply called the police gave the number of a car he knew is used by Arab / Swahili people and they were promptly arrested. They should count themselves lucky because they would have been shot dead on sight.

Next we shall look at PANIC and Mass Hysteria.