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• Raila, Kalonzo Rivalry Emerges at Peace Rally in North Rift

  Posted: April 24, 2008, 10:16 am by Phil

  What ails the NSIS?
  
  Kibaki and Raila start Peace Mission in Rift Valley
  
  Those following Citizen TV's live transmission pictures of today's peace rallies in North Rift at Eldoret's Keino Stadium must have been amused to see Raila officially invite the president to address the gathering only for VP Kalonzo to rush to the microphones, briefly addressed the gathering before inviting the president.
  
  Not only does this minor incident show a disorganised presidential programme but also gives IDPs little encouragement to reconcile with their own former neighbours. It is also a prelude of an interesting Kibaki succession battle.
  
  Matters were not made better when the mammoth crowd spent the better part of time cheering ODM ministers. At one point, the crowd shouted to Agriculture Minister William Ruto to allow Lands Minister James Orengo to address the gathering, only for him to be denied the chance at the behest of presidential protocol officials. Indeed, land is the major sticking point of all Kenya's problems and Orengo is going to be a man with a lot of work in his hands in the future.
  
  Earlier, the president, PM Raila and their ministers had toured the Eldoret IDP camp and said: "We do not want you people to continue living here and suffering, we will solve this problem very soon. We are here as leaders. ... We can solve all the problems in order for peace to exist."
  
  As at the time of posting this, the presidential entourage were addressing a peace rally in Cherangani and Raila, speaking after Kalonzo, has officially welcomed the president to address the rally. Kibaki has now taken upon himself to invite James Orengo to say jambo to the public amidst thunderous applause from Cherangani residents.

• What Ails The NSIS?

  Posted: April 24, 2008, 3:52 am by chris

  Last Sunday, the Sunday Nation carried a fascinating article based on an interview with a retired NSIS operative.

  The questions posed by that article remain mostly unanswered. The main one is how could the country slip into such serious tribal clashes with no advance warning from the country’s intelligence services? And even more recently, how could the Mungiki move in and take over the entire country for almost a week, virtually bringing business to a standstill in some areas.

  Surely, is it not true that our intelligence services (reputed to be the best in the region) were sleeping on the job? Why else have we gotten ourselves into such a mess since last December with no advance warning of any sort as events after event continue to unfold? The implication here would be that the country’s national security could be at risk if our intelligence services are so sloppy and incompetent.

  Actually the answer to that question is a little more complex than it may appear at first sight.

  The most important point to take careful note of is the fact that there is a huge difference between gathering intelligence information and processing it. Incidentally processing information is given a lot of emphasis by British security and this is one of the reasons why that country’s intelligence services are considered to be among the best in the world.

  Indeed as information technology has taken over our lives, what many who gather information have quickly found out is that it is easy to be overwhelmed with too much information or information overflow which makes processing even more challenging and a nightmare in many cases.

  There are those who strongly believe that the biggest weakness we seem to have with our local intelligence community at the moment has a lot more to do with the processing of the information rather than the gathering. Competent processing is usually linked much more to experience rather than just training and also deep knowledge of the country. However many times it boils down to gut feeling which again is developed over time. It is common knowledge that the NSIS is still a very new outfit with very well educated but inexperienced hands running the show.

  However my personal view is that the problem is not so much with the country’s intelligence units as it is with those who need to make decisions. While information can be gathered and submitted and maybe even correctly processed, decisions as to what needs to be done is mostly left to politicians and bureaucrats with political interests to look after.

  For example NSIS information in the run up to the general elections last year, predicted a near-landslide victory for the Orange Democratic party. This information was known within the agency and caused it split the intelligence community right down the middle when the controversial results were released by the ECK amid allegations that some personnel in the organization were used to help skew the results in favor of a certain candidate.

  But maybe the biggest judgment call last December emerged from the fact the person heading the intelligence unit had their better judgment clouded because of their tribe. Michael Gichangi hails from the house of Mumbi and it is abundantly clear that he completely underestimated the possible reaction of the vast majority of Kenyans to a stolen election like many of his kinsmen did. If truth be told many Kikuyus still do nt understand what the problem is and lean heavily on the assumption that the whole violence was heavily financed by somebody. Because of that misjudgment there are over 4,000 Kenyans who are no longer with us today and have gone to meet their maker. In my raw notes this week I discuss what Gichangi is said to have advised the president to do to ward off a possible court injunction over the stolen elections from ODM.

  Even more recently police commissioner Maj Gen Hussein Ali received intelligence reports indicating that Mungiki were planning to go on the rampage. Ali totally rubbished that report based on the vicious bloodletting that went on last year to purge the proscribed group. He was wrong of course and that is why the police were taken completely by surprise.

  
  

  Passionately in love with her best friend's husband
  

  
  The 5 most popular stories in Kumekucha over the last 24 hours
  
  

  1. How Maina Njenga's wife was raped and murdered
  

  2. IDP's are pawns in political game
  
  3. Sexual secrets of the Maasai tribe
  
  4. Bizarre condition has kept beautiful woman from sex
  

  5. Jeff Koinange's K24 and what most Kenyans think
  
  

Blah blah blah

Fish cakes

Alas a fish cake.

Yet more fish cakes

Guess what ... yeah ... fish cakes.

The end of the fish cakes