Rein in VIPs who have tossed traffic rule book out the door to beat jams

Posted Monday, April 15, 2013 | By MACHARIA GAITHO mgaitho@ke.nationmedia.com

IN SUMMARY

• Even before starting to take in new recruits, the President can signal his resolve on this issue by getting Inspector-General David Kimaiyo to recall all the men and women serving the egos of individuals and get them back to combating criminals
• It should be obvious to anybody by now that presidential security and protocol in Kenya is sometimes more about radiating power than guarding against any real threat
• If we take pride in our democracy, all the trappings of power around the President must surely be distinguishable from that of some tin pot military dictatorship where there will always be valid fear of an imminent counter-putsch

Driving down on Lang’ata Road the other day, I courteously gave way to a vehicle approaching furiously up the wrong side of the dual carriageway with its siren blaring and strobe lights on.

It was only after it had passed that I realised it wasn’t an ambulance or other emergency service vehicle on a life-saving mission, but merely Kenya Police ‘chase car’ for some nabob following closely behind in a luxury four-wheel-drive behemoth.

I was outraged, as I’m sure many others were, to be forced off the road by a reckless and dangerous driver.

I think everybody is quite happy to give way to an ambulance, fire brigade or police car racing to an emergency, but surely we should not to arrogant VIPs who might be late for their dates or functions forcing their way through the traffic.

Actually it is becoming increasingly common these days to encounter these police Land Rovers escorting some dignitary to God-knows-where and behaving as if they were the presidential escort.

There’s a regular one I encounter most mornings overtaking on the wrong side of the road joining Gandhi Avenue in Nairobi West from the Muhoho Avenue South C approach and heading onto the Lang’ata Road-Madaraka roundabout.

If we must, let’s leave aggressive road manners for a select few. In our culture, demented traffic behaviour was always a preserve of the presidential escort.

As vice presidents, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, Mr Joseph Murumbi, Mr Daniel arap Moi and Mr Mwai Kibaki had their security escorts, but they went with the flow of traffic and never barrelled down the wrong side of the road.

Now we have developed a culture where every two-bit VIP — from House Speakers, judges and members of constitutional commissions and State corporation heads — have out of my pocket and your pocket retinues of bodyguards and escort cars who are there to project power and arrogance rather than serve any security imperative.

We even have rude foreign envoys, the American one comes to mind as I have written previously, displaying their bully-boy ways on our roads.

We have already seen the scandal where nearly 10 per cent of the officers of the Kenya Police Service are kept busy as watchmen, messengers, pimps and general factotum for the self-inflated classes that Fela Kuti called Vagabonds in Power (VIPs).

Those are men and women in uniform who should be busy fighting crime in our streets, towns, villages and government departments but instead are diverted to protect the VIPs.

The Police Service is already suffering a serious deficit, and we know that President Uhuru Kenyatta has pledged to speed up recruitment so that we have more officers to the beat.

Even before starting to take in new recruits, the President can signal his resolve on this issue by getting Inspector-General David Kimaiyo to recall all the men and women serving the egos of individuals and get them back to combating criminals.

Other than the President and a few other top officials who must have State protection, anybody else who feels the need for enhanced security can hire private ones.

The President might also want to order a review of his own security escort so that he has no more than he needs.

It should be obvious to anybody by now that presidential security and protocol in Kenya is sometimes more about radiating power than guarding against any real threat. That is why even at an indoor event where the perimeter has already been secured, the men in dark suits will still be prowling menacingly around.

I have had the privilege of accompanying presidents Moi and Kibaki to events outside Kenya and marvelled at how relaxed and at ease they were as they mingled when not surrounded by a phalanx of mean and rude muscles.

President Kenyatta is by nature easy-going. He must not allow his natural style to be cramped by officials preoccupied with the display of power.

If we take pride in our democracy, all the trappings of power around the President must surely be distinguishable from that of some tin pot military dictatorship where there will always be valid fear of an imminent counter-putsch.