The business costs of security
FOR ordinary people of any persuasion, it is impossible to comprehend the depth of venomous misanthropy to which a person must descend in order to commit the acts we witnessed in Nairobi at the weekend. Fundamentalist Muslim terror groups appear to feel increasingly pushed to acts of ever more wanton inhumanity in order to guarantee the broadcast of their fantastic misinterpretation of geopolitics, secularism and — not least — Islam.
Such savagery exists in a world in which the traditional global powers are increasingly unwilling, or unable, to intervene in foreign conflicts. The decline of the US, the UK and the West generally as global powers historically willing to intervene where they believe — or at least professed to believe — a murderous injustice has taken place is not necessarily always a good thing. When the UK’s then prime minister, Tony Blair, intervened in the Sierra Leone civil war, most agreed the outcome was positive, not least the people of Sierra Leone themselves.
For citizens and businesses in African countries that have a militant Islam problem, however, this does at least mean there is some clarity. Under Barack Obama, who has alienated and offended traditional US allies such as the UK, there will very obviously never be a coalition military intervention in Somalia. If the US and its former allies are unwilling to intervene in Syria, which has allegedly bombed its own children with sarin gas, then this much is evident.
We have been here before. While there was a spate of aircraft hijackings in the 1970s, it was the events on 9/11 that transformed how we get onto an aircraft. As a result of 9/11 and the likelihood of further “suicide” terrorist missions, it is ever more frustrating, time-consuming and expensive to get onto a flight. The gun attacks in Mumbai in 2008, which killed 164 people, illustrated how terrorists were seeking different, softer targets.
This is the reality facing businesses that operate in Kenya, especially those that might attract western brands and expatriates. AlShabaab in Somalia is a problem that needs to be practically considered as permanent. It is not interested in appeals to reason, humanity or scripture. As a result, companies operating in all up-market tourism and retail operations in Kenya need to assess the costs and implications to their businesses urgently. AlShabaab is not going away and neither is the murderous strain of Islam that inspires it.
It is expensive to avoid being a soft target. But given that soft targets are the terrorists’ first prize, it is an expense companies in affected regions are simply going to have to bear. Given our own recent disastrous crime statistics and the unending inability of the government to take crime seriously enough to appoint a competent commissioner, it seems unlikely our Kenyan friends will be alone. With an eye on the approaching heist season in advance of Christmas in our own shopping centres, it seems more than probable that South African shoppers and retail operations will also endure the cost and inconvenience of an increasingly insecure environment — here and throughout the continent.