The government has mooted a multi-agency training to combat terrorism and civil unrest dubbed ‘operation dumisha utulivu’ comprising officers drawn from all security agents five weeks to the August polls.
While unveiling the second phase of the training, Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery said all players in the security sector will receive the training as a team under the theme of improving multi-agency coordination through cohesion and synergy in response to crisis.
The week long training will comprise of officers from the Kenya Defence Forces, National Police Service, National Intelligence Service, Kenya Prisons, Kenya Forest Service, Kenya Wildlife Service, National Youth Service, National Disaster management Unit and Nairobi County Fire Brigade.
“Long gone are the days of inefficiency. We will evaluate the multi-agency capabilities in tackling terrorism and civil unrest. This is in preparation to the upcoming elections. We will train all the commanders. We have twenty two counties here and the rest will also be trained.” Nkiassery said.
Chief of the Defence Forces General Samson Mwathethe said the training is timely as the country gears up for presidential polls.
“This is a timely exercise that will equip the officers with timely and effective response terrorism and civil unrest.” Mwathethe said.
During the 2007-2008 post elections violence in which over 1,300 died following the disputed presidential polls, spontaneous conflict marked the ugly aftermath the nation is still healing from.
The 530 participants will undergo through the intensive training sessions at the Humanitarian Peace Support School Embakasi Garrison.
The exercise will be in four phases; the classroom or clinic phase, command post exercise, field training exercise and after action review.
During the sessions, the officers will also seek to understand a three point pillar among them the role of command, control, communication and intelligence, chain of command and level of preparedness to violence.
