Street beggars huge security threat that seems harmless

Walk along most of Nairobi streets and footbridges, and it’s common to see beggars who, coincidentally, all have physical disability and, for the women, carry a baby or tag along a small child. In their unguarded moments, you will catch them whispering into hidden mobile phones.

Socrates said, “Intelligent individuals learn from everything and everyone; average people from their experiences. The stupid already have all the answers.” Kenya should learn from history how nations have used beggars, small-scale hawkers, drivers, househelps and the like to collect crucial intelligence from neighbours seen as potential enemies.

Local media have reported how some of the beggars narrated having been recruited into the ‘business’, which is “better in Kenya”. They claimed to have been promised to ‘earn’ Sh12,000 a month. In 2017, some foreign beggars were reported to have been lured to Kenya by able-bodied men, who are the main beneficiaries of the ‘trade’, and deployed to various towns. This is most likely human trafficking as part of a regional organised crime syndicate.

Several security swoops have yielded arrests and prosecutions, but that seems not to crack the ring.

Asked about human trafficking, former US President Barack Obama said: “It ought to concern every person, because it’s a debasement of our common humanity. It ought to concern every community, because it tears at our social fabric. It ought to concern every business, because it distorts markets. It ought to concern every nation, because it endangers public health and fuels violence and organised crime. I’m talking about the injustice, the outrage, of human trafficking, which must be called by its true name — modern slavery.”

Criminality

From an espionage point of view, this is more than a business or criminality, but a national security threat. Colonel (Rtd) Cyrus Oguna, while the School of Military Intelligence commandant, taught me that intelligence collection refers to the means and processes used to gather and ‘collect’ information of value. Depending on the information, the goal is to gain access to restricted or secret information.

Some of the commonest ways include human intelligence (Humint) — the collection of information from people. This can be achieved by observations from a static position or on the move. Humint can also be done via elicitation, surveillance, photography, interviews, interrogation, recording and so on.

In my view, these beggars are strategically located to easily collect information that could be processed into valuable intelligence.

The Nairobi Country government, Nairobi Metropolitan Services, and the national government, should treat the influx of beggars as a serious threat to security. This can be fixed by sound policy frameworks and legislation, partnerships with the United Nations, African Union, NGOs and community organisations.

 The security agencies should embrace a cross-border multi-agency information sharing, especially on organised crime, including seeking the input of the Interpol and other domiciled international intelligence agencies.

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