Kenya’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) is redefining its role by engaging the public, a move seen as a bid to enhance national security through citizen participation.
NIS Director General Noordin Haji on Thursday led top security chiefs in the inaugural public lecture, as the service stepped out of its shadows to face the public.
Speaking at the National Intelligence and Research University (NIRU), Mr Haji acknowledged the need for a new era of transparency and engagement in the information age.
“In a democratic state, silence must never be mistaken for impunity,” he said, emphasizing the need to balance operational secrecy with public accountability.
He warned of the dangers of overexposure: “If a blanket keeps you warm through the storm, it may not always be wise to unravel the stitches to understand how. In seeking to know every thread, you may undo the very thing that shields you.”
This lecture represents a turning point in how Kenya’s intelligence community relates to the public—no longer as a distant, opaque institution, but as a responsive service evolving with the times.
“Citizens want details. They want timelines. They want names,” Mr Haji noted, adding that public understanding and trust are now essential to national security.
Crucially, the DG shed light on how the NIS is addressing insecurity by tackling its socioeconomic roots.
He cited underdeveloped regions where children lack access to education and are at risk of recruitment into banditry and extremism.
“The child who cannot access education because of insecurity is the same one who may become a bandit, a terrorist, or a trafficker—and then we spend even more to fight them later,” he said, describing this as a shift from reactive to preventive security.
Mr Haji also illustrated Kenya’s dual reality—where some citizens contend with longstanding ethnic divisions and insecurity, while others face modern threats like cybercrime, misinformation, and intellectual property theft.
“Since independence, Kenyan institutions have secured only 55 patents. Yet our young people are innovating daily—only for their ideas to be exploited by others and commercialized abroad,” he said.
Addressing regional instability, he warned that conflicts in Ethiopia, Sudan, and South Sudan could trigger refugee influxes, arms and drug trafficking, and cross-border crime.
“These developments are straining our resources and complicating our efforts to promote integration and peace. The instability of our neighbours directly impacts our own safety and prosperity,” he noted.
The DG also issued a strong appeal for media responsibility and national unity, stating: “The media is no longer just a mirror—it is a moulder of minds. Let us use our voices not to divide, but to uphold the truth and protect the republic.”
He reaffirmed the NIS’s role as a protector of the people, not political actors: “Citizens must find belonging in this polity. Their voices must be heard so that they can truly own the state.”
Chief of the Defence Forces (CDF) General Charles Kahariri emphasised that Kenyans must not allow anarchy at the expense of the law.
“Even as people exercise their rights, we should be within limits and bounds so that we don’t tear our country apart.”
“As a military, our core value is that we are apolitical. We don’t support any political camp. We defend the constitution and the government of the day,” Gen Kahariri asserted.
He went on: “So when some people say they are tired of this government, a government they elected on their own and say ‘must go,’ that ‘must go,’ must be done according to the constitution.”
The CDF spoke in the wake of heightened political temperatures, which have seen crowds in various gatherings make chants of ‘Ruto Must Go! in what is seen as a push to remove President William Ruto from power.
The chants have been witnessed in various night clubs in parts of the country, and last week during the Harambee Stars vs Gabon match and Nyayo National Stadium.
On Thursday, Gen Kahariri also weighed in on the debate over alleged military involvement in dealing with the public during past anti-government protests, reiterating that the defence force is apolitical but has a duty to protect the sovereignty of the nation.
“So those who have been questioning why the military is deployed, we have a responsibility to defend the constitution and the republic,” Gen Kahariri said.
