Fantastic analysis Mungala Ezekiel Kuloba Patrick Lumumba Oteng had this to say: It is emerging that the siege did not last the full four days as we were made to believe. Analysis of new CCTV footage shows that the terrorists (4) stopped roaming the mall after only a few hours of the first day (Saturday 21, 2013). There is no evidence that they were still there after 24 hours, yet all available footage shows security forces freely exploring the mall on Sunday and beyond. So, what happened? Here is my hypothesis. The terrorists blast their way into the mall; the police, the Red Cross and private gun holders respond, but without proper coordination or command. They still rescue many people. The police get their act together about 2 - 3 hours into the siege and rope in the special operations unit, the Reece Squad. As the Reece Squad is making good progress, someone somewhere realises that this is a golden opportunity to achieve two completely unrelated objectives; one domestic, another foreign. So, they think, the longer the siege lasted, the attention of Kenyans would be diverted from the sharp price increase on essential goods caused by recent introduction of VAT. Secondly, the longer the siege was sustained, the easier it would be for government to gain sympathy from the international community to soften its stance on the ICC cases. So, these guys make the decision to halt the rapid progress that the Reece unit was making by bringing a “special” division of the army. But the President has already announced that the Inspector General of Police was the overall commander of the operations. You know the army cannot be commanded by a policeman. The police and their Reece unit resist this most illogical order, as they have already cornered the terrorists and are just hours, if not minutes away from completely subduing them and ending the siege. The army has only one option to implement this order, force the Reece unit out by opening fire on them, thereby killing one of their commanders and injuring another. The Reece unit withdraws within hours of being deployed. The army takes full control and cordons off the area. Hours after this, Kenyans are being mobilized, under the tagline #WeAreOne , to pull together and donate blood. The Deputy President asks for, and is granted, leave from the ICC to attend to this “national crisis”. The vocal protests on rising commodity prices are no more. Kenya managed to justify an AU special Summit to discuss the ICC process within days. The Hague based court has ceded some ground by allowing the President partial “excusal”. Objectives achieved. But at what cost? Who was the army firing at for three days? Who set the building on fire and why? Are we one?
Posted on: Sat, 19 Oct 2013 17:13:31 +0000
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