KENYA needs quick solutions to improve security. There is one very easy move that will instantly improve the security of public places like Westgate. The police should now approve selected private security companies to issue shotguns to their guards.
The police has always resisted allowing security companies to provide armed guards. They argue that it will increase insecurity. But in Rwanda and Uganda, private security companies are allowed to issue guns and both countries are much safer than Kenya.
Right now only terrorists, thieves and police have guns, and look at what is happening. The advantage of a shotgun is that it is only fatal at close range, unlike a G3 or AK47.
The Securex guards at Westgate could have defended themselves without fear of killing people nearby with stray bullets. The guards would be issued with the shotguns when they come to work, and would return them at the end of their shift.
They would be in constant radio contact with their controllers. There would be no risk that the shotguns would be used in armed robberies. By insisting that private security guards should remain unarmed, the police is just making the work of thieves and terrorists much easier.
Quote of the day: "All human knowledge takes the form of interpretation." - German philosopher Walter Benjamin committed suicide on September 27, 1940
