Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen.
The government has moved to overhaul its outdated security surveillance infrastructure as it seeks to embrace technology-driven coordination and response to national security threats for enhanced security operations.
The development comes after the Cabinet on Monday approved the establishment of a critical national security system as Kenya moves to modernise public safety infrastructure and strengthen coordinated national security response.
The National Integrated Security Command and Control System will replace the current obsolete platform with an integrated, technology-driven architecture linking security agencies and enabling real-time intelligence sharing and response.
The system will initially be deployed to major urban centres and corridors, including Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, Nakuru, Eldoret and key border counties.
This will ensure the safety of goods and transit along the major transport corridors in the country while also strengthening surveillance in areas prone to infiltration and banditry.
“The Cabinet also gave its nod to the establishment of the National Integrated Security Command and Control System to modernise public safety infrastructure and strengthen coordinated national security response,” reads a State House dispatch.
Interior and National Administration Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen explained that the new system is designed to modernise Kenya’s security framework by enabling seamless coordination and real-time intelligence sharing among all security agencies.
The former Elgeyo Marakwet senator said the security system will seamlessly link all security agencies into a single, integrated platform.
“The centrality of security in enabling this transformation cannot be overstated,” said Mr Murkomen on X, formerly Twitter.
“This state-of-the-art security infrastructure will facilitate real-time intelligence sharing, provide unified command, control and coordination during incidents, and significantly enhance safety and security across border areas, key transport corridors and major urban centres,” he added.
CCTV cameras in Nairobi.
The new system will form part of a wider initiative to strengthen Kenya’s security infrastructure and improve national security response capabilities.
Terror threats
This is by eliminating the silos between police, intelligence, and border units, with Kenya grappling with operational gaps between agencies, a situation that has been blamed for delayed responses to crime and terror threats in the country.
In 2020, former President Uhuru Kenyatta launched the National Security Telecommunications Service, an integrated communications platform which was aimed at enhancing the sharing of information between Kenya’s security agencies.
This is by providing a synchronised communication network of security agencies that will enable them to combat threats against the country’s national security.
The new integrated system was to enable more effective communication among the country’s security apparatus including the military, police, intelligence and other security services at both intra-agency and inter-agency levels.
The new technological development was touted to enable security agencies to collaborate better and improve response times to public safety needs.
Before then, Kenya’s security agencies had been using their own telecommunication network, an arrangement that has led to duplication of infrastructure and made cross-agency communication difficult.
Consequently, the new system was to enable security agencies to collaborate better and improve response times to public safety needs.
The new platform was also to help address the challenge of geographical penetration faced by some of the individual agencies’ networks.
CCTV cameras are installed on Kimathi Street in Nairobi on November 1, 2013.
“This will enhance coordination of security activities and operations, allow real-time information exchange, and allow our security agencies to better deal with emerging threats in the realms of cybercrime,” said President Kenyatta then.
In 2014, the Kenya Police Service was to receive a modern integrated security system to revolutionise how it fights crime.
Public safety
The Integrated Public Safety Communication and Surveillance System, implemented by Safaricom at a cost of Sh12.3 billion, was to come with video surveillance, digital radios to replace the walkie-talkies used by police, a video conferencing system, a central command for the communication system and a mapping system.
As part of the project, 18,00 surveillance cameras were to be installed in Nairobi and Mombasa. The cameras were to include street surveillance cameras which can read and recognise licence plates. Further, infrared cameras were to be installed in alleys or tunnels with little light.
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