Terrorists targeting key civilian installations in Ghana - Kenyan MP

Kenyan Officials have expressed concern about potential terrorist attacks targeted at Ghana and are expecting the country’s security agencies to take the threat seriously.

Speaking to the Daily Guide newspaper in Nairobi on Sunday, a former army Colonel of the Kenyan Defence Force (KDF), Col (Rtd) Benedict Musembi and a Kenyan Member of Parliament for Nakuru County, Onesmus Kimani Ngunjiri, expressed the hope that unlike Kenya, Ghana would not take lightly, intelligence filtering in that some terror groups were targeting key civilian installations in Ghana.

“In Africa, we need to be careful. We need to be alert; we need to tell the truth. We need to know there is an enemy coming which is terrorism, so it is not only Kenya, but all over the continent now,” the Kenyan MP Kimani Ngunjiri told Daily Guide exclusively in Nairobi.

“I think, it’s a big thing now and it is targeting Africa and we must be very careful about it now. We cannot trust anybody, whether white or black or blue…When the information is given, we need to take it very seriously.”

In Kenya, the job of the National Intelligence Service boss, Micheal Gichangi, is currently on the line because he did not take seriously, intelligence passed to him by Israeli and American intelligence agencies about a potential terror attack on Kenya.

It is believed that laxity on the part of the Kenyan intelligence resulted in the massacre of more than 70 people by Somali-based terror group, Al-shabaab on September 21, 2013.

Similarly, the British government, through its High Commission in Ghana, is sending signals of a potential terror attack by terrorist groups originating from Mali.

On September 26, the High Commission issued alerts to its citizens in Ghana, saying that they had strong suspicious about a potential hit on the country. “There is an underlying threat from terrorism. Attacks could be indiscriminate, including places visited by expatriates and foreign travelers,” the circular to British citizens in Ghana stated.

“We should not take these things lightly. When any country is given those kinds of information, we need to be careful and take it very seriously,” the Kenyan MP advised.

“It is not only in Kenya; the fire [of terrorism] is spreading across Africa,” noted Col. (Rtd) Musembi in a one-on-one interview with Daily Guide in Nairobi.

“If our security had taken it seriously, I think we could not have gotten those problems [the Westgate massacre], but sometimes we are so careless.”

According to the British, Ghana is being targeted for its military intervention in Mali, were African Union troops are helping to fight armed Islamist incursions into the country from the north. There is a possibility of retaliatory attacks in Ghana due to its participation in the intervention in Mali.

It is unclear if Ghanaian security agencies have received any specific intelligence about the nature of the terrorist threat, but frantic anti-terrorism preparations are being made by the Ghana Police Service and the military, giving rise to suspicions that the terror attack is not a mere hoax.

Earlier this week, Prophet T.B Joshua, the revered Christian seer and preacher, claimed he had a vision of two West African countries being attacked by terrorists. He has made several predictions that have happened.

At the same period, the Ghana Police Service commissioned a Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) Unit consisting of 130 police personnel. They have commenced a 30-day specialized training against terrorist attacks.

The training will equip the unit with skills for crowd control, protection of VIPs, strategies in special weapons and tactics.

According to John Kudalor, the Director-General of Police Operations, the increasing demand on the service for internal security, called for “more diverse, complex but specialized, training.”

When asked if the security agencies had received any specific intelligence about the alleged terror attack in Ghana, the Director of Public Relations of the Ghana Police Service, DSP Cephas Arthur told this paper: “…You know that if there have been any intelligence concerning terror, you know that the Police will not put it into the public domain…I doubt any security agency will tell the public about the intelligence they are picking.”

He explained that such intelligence could cause undue panic among citizens. “Sometimes it could even be scary if there are any such intelligence.”

Col (Rtd) Musembi believed terrorist groups had adopted the strategy of attacking countries fighting against their cause.

Ghana was part of treaties endorsing African Union-led troops in Somalia fighting against Al-Shabab Islamists threatening to impose Islamic rule in Somalia and other parts of Africa.