Life as a politician's bodyguard in Kenya

President Uhuru is surrounded by men charged with protecting him and his family

By HUDSON GUMBIHI


With his dark suit concealing the obvious bulge of the pistol, the occasional pitch-black sunglasses covering his darting eyes and the dont-mess-with-me stern face, Peter* is every inch the lethal bodyguard. His presence is an apparent reassurance that no harm can befall the boss, a prominent Senator.












However, while his family, friends, police colleagues and the public envy the power and prestige of being a VIP bodyguard, Peter thinks he is nothing but a thin veneer that covers a broken VIP protection setting.
It is a completely failed system. But there is no problem as long as it helps me to feed and educate my children, he says with a resigned shrug of the shoulders.
The truth, says the city policeman, is that he is too ill-trained and ill-equipped to guarantee proper protection. He also claims there is little a bodyguard can do in certain situations, especially considering the casual manner in which some VIPs conduct themselves.
Can the bodyguard protect him from being poisoned by the girlfriend? We are normal human beings, not supernatural beings, he said.
He also claims to be shabbily treated by the senator, including often being asked to run domestic errands that are more suited to a timid houseboy than a tough escort.
Peters circumstances underline the problems of the VIP protection setting that operates with no clear policies, legislation or coherence of command. Instead, individual bosses control the bodyguards.
Police estimates indicate that at least 2,000 officers are guarding VIPs, with most of them assigned to MPs, Senators and Governors.
The officer says apart from providing protection, he and his colleagues are supposed to be agents passing out information to the National Intelligence Service ( NIS).
That is part of the briefing before being deployed, but it hardly happens because we are compromised to the level of not giving information to the intelligence. Sometimes we escort the VIPs to shady deals, claims the officer, who declines to further explain the dirty deals his boss is involved in.
Debate on VIP protection has been in the limelight in recent weeks following a decision by government to recall some of them. The number of bodyguards and vehicles assigned to former Prime Minister Raila Odinga and former Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka has also been a contentious subject.

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