ODM leader Raila Odinga. [Photo/ Courtesy of RO]
NASA presidential candidate Raila Odinga’s ridiculous claim that President Uhuru Kenyatta plans to use the military to give the Jubilee Party an advantage in the general election is a misplaced allegation that should not go unchallenged. It is Raila’s latest desperate move to create dramatic sideshows at a time when he is expected to tell Kenyans why they should choose him over President Kenyatta, whose development record over the past four years is irresistibly persuasive. The election is just over a month away and the NASA flag presidential bearer seems lost. For starters, the security agencies in Kenya work together in a coordinated effort to contain threats. This multi-agency effort was started after the 2013 terror attack at Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, in which the different security organs involved in the rescue mission exchanged friendly fire. Around the same period, Somali-based Al Shabaab militants mounted a number of successful attacks in Kenya. The intelligence services was always aware of the planned attacks but the lack of coordination with other organs to foil the terrorists’ evil plans ensured nothing stopped them. That is why President Kenyatta rooted for the several agencies to work together. And ever since the teams started working together, terrorist attacks have sharply dropped. The opposition no longer accuses the government of failing to secure the safety of Kenyans. What Raila pretends not to know is that these agencies, which include the National Police Service, Kenya Defense Forces (KDF), the National Intelligence Services (NIS), Kenya Prisons, National Youth Service, the National Counter Terrorism Centre, Kenya Wildlife Service among others meet regularly to plan their work. In the latest case, the agencies were meeting to plan on how to provide security during the August 8 general election. If the agencies are sloppy at their work and fail to provide adequate security during polling day, the exercise can degenerate into chaos. No one wants a repeat of the 2007/08 post-election madness when more than 1,000 people lost their lives and another 650,000 were displaced from their homes. The Kenya Military is a professional organisation whose men and women are never involved in politics. The only time the military was dragged into political issues was in 1982, and Raila was the politician who led the failed coup. While his counterparts were sentenced to death for attempting to overthrow the government, Raila was lucky to serve only 9 years in jail. The ODM leader must stop raising unnecessary alarms at this sensitive time. It can harm the country. The security agencies should be allowed to continue working together to ensure security is beefed up before and after the elections. That is the only way to ensure thugs don’t take advantage of lapses to cause chaos.