| Owen Yaa Baya
As I jetted back into the country and checked into a hotel for a well-deserved rest I was welcomed by metal detectors at the gate, car peeping and mirroring of the underside of my car. I let the uniformed boys and girls of the local force do their job after all they have families to feed and needs that require money. I was carrying three suitcases and other paraphernalia. They only peeped in the car boot saw the luggage and paraphernalia but asked no questions
Then I visited the malls and found many more Askaris, passing their metal detectors over people entering and exiting; detecting nothing. People who wouldn’t stop to be frisked were still allowed to continue into the malls. In the parking lot, I asked them what it was they were looking for in passing the detectors and the mirrors underneath the cars and peeping through tinted car windows. None of them seemed really aware of what it was they were looking for, except for bombs and grenades.
Now looking for bombs and grenades is like going to the forest to hunt for snakes. It requires some technique and some snake handling skills. It also requires one to have protective clothing, anti-venom in case one is bitten, and the appropriate snake-catching equipment.
Looking at these Askaris – the equivalent of Kenya’s modern-day bomb, grenades and explosive experts – you imagine that our country’s security system is a joke. These Askaris are actually doing a very important and dangerous job of which they know nothing about. Important because the lives of the people in those buildings depends on them, and dangerous because hunting explosive and assault weapons on people puts these guards in the frontline in case of attack.
As you observe these guys do their jobs you realize that they do not have any form of communication equipment to alert law enforcement or call for back-up in case of emergency. So what would they do if they found a bomb or a grenade? The long winding answers they gave me means one thing: they do not know! Worse still they did not have any equipment that could be used to disable a terrorist. Do they know the tactics of disabling someone carrying an assault weapon? Do they know the protocols of dealing with hazardous materials? The demeanor of the Askaris indicates they don’t.
More interesting is that these ladies and gentlemen only look for things which can be detected by metal detectors. To the best of my knowledge bomb-making material cannot be detected by metal detectors. A phone can be a gadget that can be used to make a bomb and detonate it. A Mobile phone itself can indeed be a bomb so why do they allow mobile phones into the buildings without screening them. They won’t touch your bag if you tell them that what is inside is a laptop. But we all know that laptop cases have been used to make highly explosive bombs! In fact the practice is that when the touch your pockets and you say that’s a mobile phone they are okay with it and they do not need to see it. If you say those are car keys they do not screen them.
During a real security check anything in the pocket must be removed and passed through a screening machine to make sure that nothing is hidden in the phone, in the wallet, in the computer, the keys, or the materials of the belt and shoes. Our Askaris are only interested in the content of the pockets when in fact nothing should be in the pockets during security checks.
Metal detectors carried by clueless, untrained personnel will not in any way prevent terrorism. Methinks security checks in buildings exists to create employment and passing on money to security firms and passing on more money to foreign manufacturers of metal detectors. Unless checked this will eventually have catastrophic results. I keep wondering whether the security firms that have insured the Askaris against a real threat at these check points.
Coast This Week 