THE CHINESE WHISPERS OF SECURITY WARNINGS IN SOCIAL MEDIA

Kenya is under attack. 

We are under attack from terrorists, who believe that the country needs to pull its soldiers out of Somalia.  That is the reason in its simplest form.  I am sure there is a lot more to it than that, and as I have professed before I am not into politics or embroiled in conversations about governmental policies.  Either way, besides the reasoning’s there is an air of concern and apprehension in and around the country.  Nairobi has been struck by multiple bombings in its suburbs the last 5 weeks including Mombasa, which has also been a target a lot more times than I care to count, especially in recent times.  It has always been a hot spot down on the coast and with the current atmosphere as it is at the moment things are just escalating in that area as well. 

So with that all said Kenya is watching its back.  People are becoming more security conscience and you would think that that would be a good thing, which it is.  But to put things into a little perspective there are over 50 countries represented in Kenya with Embassies or High Commissions.  Each of those embassies/high commissions have their own security teams and assessors.  Add into that mix all the international corporations that have employees here in the country, the aid workers, the massive UN presence and then then anyone who is in Kenya for military services, then finally add into that mix the spouses and families of all of the above workers, a bigger issue has emerged of a Chinese whispers type of sharing target/alert messages, that grows like wildfire on social media.  Chinese whispers is a game in which one person whispers a message to another, which is passed through a line of people until the last player announces the message to the entire group. Errors typically accumulate in the retellings, so the statement announced by the last player differs significantly from the one uttered by the first. Reasons for changes include anxiousness or impatience, erroneous corrections, and this is where the inaccuracies as rumours or gossip spread, or, more generally, for the unreliability of human recollection.  As a game it is fun, but in the context of security messages spreading in that format is just a scary and troubling thought.  I have joined some Facebook Security groups on Facebook, there is the main NES (Nairobi Expat Social) Facebook group and I am on a WhatsApp alert group as well.  There are a lot of avenues where information is shared which generally is a good thing but I guess modern technology is what we make and use of it in this day and age. 

The social media has become a treadmill of rumours and has turned people into detectives and intelligence officers.  It should be noted that generally no Intel information is ever transmitted via SMS or WhatsApp.  No Intel information springs out of multiple sources as it's usually passed on by a designated official and lastly Intel information must have a backup on their website which is authenticated by their representative and mostly from the agency responsible for the Intel information shared.  Recently people have shared information or Intel, which always comes from 'reliable sources' about impending 'terror' attacks.  It is shame that there is no real way of authenticating some of these claims or warnings before they are posted.  It seems most times now that the ‘intel’ is fast degenerating into rumour mongering and here-say and causing un-necessary panic, plus this publicity of Kenya being too vulnerable.  People just need to be credible while issuing some of these 'alerts'. It is good to stay vigilant, but the rumour mill fuels fear and panic among us, and how well we may each be contributing to keeping it alive by fuelling it with every rumour we may hear and share.  It's important that the information is distinguished between facts and opinion, supposition and rumour.  It doesn’t help that everyone is slightly confused by the response from their own Embassies. Do they know more than they lead us to believe and for the exact reasons mentioned above not releasing anything as they also here from sources that may or may not have been confirmed?  I can see it is a catch 22 for them as well.  The US Ambassador has even delivered an official statement on the rumour mongering that has involved the ‘supposed’ closure of the US Embassy and the ‘evacuation’ of its staff, which at this point is unfounded.     

Having so many embassies in Kenya, it is as easy as one consulate may release a warning to its citizens here, but others won’t, so things get posted for those who are not of that country.  Then people ‘hear’ things from their escaries (guards), or their brothers friends who works at the airport, or someone’s sister who knows someone in the UN, people have friends in high-level security positions and there is where the multiple stories stems from.  Unconfirmed stories hit the internet waves and it starts to cause this mass confusion and even more importantly mass panic.  Unfortunately, like anything else, some people are calm in pressure situations, some people are wary and others are like tightly wound springs.  It is hard for everyone as we all try and be proactive and pass on any information to try and keep the public safe.  What comes with that is that passing on that information/security alert, which may not actually eventuate and worry a whole community for no reason.  The general consensus seems to be that people want to know everything and have nothing happen than to be oblivious to something that ‘could’ be a real terror alert.    

The talk at the moment is the mass evacuation of the Brits a few weeks ago.  There has been so much information and press on the ‘evacuation’ of the Brits from Mombasa, that does not help the general atmosphere of the country.  But to put the mass exodus into simple terms, it was only the Brits that were on chartered packages, like with Thompsons and First Choice.  With the change of the UK travel warning, The ONLY people being evacuated are the tourists staying in the areas effected who travelled with a charter company such as Thompsons or First Choice. This is because these companies have no choice. As soon as there is a warning stating only essential travel should be done, any charter based company has to remove its clients as a charter is not considered essential and their company insurance becomes invalid. If a client has travelled with a scheduled airline, it then is their choice as to stay or not as the airline insurance remains in place and it is then up to the individual client as to whether they wish to stay.  Tourists and/or residents in Kenya who are not on a Mombasa Airport charter are not being evacuated nor has any government actually recommended evacuation for anyone.  Tour operators Thomson and First Choice have cancelled all flights to Mombasa until October and said some 400 holidaymakers would be flown back as a precaution.  In turn the last 2 weeks over 20 hotels have closed on the coast and 5000 people are now out of work.  Australia released its travel warning a week after the Brits were ‘evacuated’ and it is the first warning that has come officially from the Australian High Commission since the Westgate Siege last September.   

Then 2 days after the Brits were ‘evacuated’ there was another twin blast in Nairobi at the Gikomba Markets.  The Kenyan National Disaster Operation Centre said the first explosion occurred in a minibus and the second explosion went off in the large open-air Gikomba Market.  The first blast went off near a structure where people were buying second-hand clothes where two men and a woman were killed on the spot while about thirty others were injured.  The second blast was on a 14-seater matatu that was ferrying passengers and was thrown off the road and its windows shattered.  As people fled, the second blast went off, killing one person immediately and injuring 40 others.  The Gikomba Market is one of the biggest second-hand clothes markets in East and Central Africa.  According to police, the blasts were caused by Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) that were about 70 metres apart and the interval between the blasts was two minutes.  Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi confirmed twelve people were killed and over 80 wounded in two bomb attacks. 

We are living in a country that is struggling to keep its head above water.  The people are jittery, the foreigners are skittish and the tourists have stopped coming.  The country is falling to its knees, but after living in Kenya for 16 months now there is one thing that I have learnt.  The Kenyan people are resilient, they are strong and in times of trouble they come together as one and I am sure, no matter how long this attack on the country continues, they will come out the other side more positive and with more strength.  The only thing that we can do, living in Kenya at the moment, is to stay wary, be vigilant, look out for your immediate group of friends, share what we find out and just keep our ears and eyes open at all times.  I am also of the opinion that I would prefer to have all the information and be in the know, whether it is correct or happens, than be oblivious to what may or may not be happening around me.  To believe or not to believe, that is the question.  This is our day to day lives at the moment and without sounding dramatic, Kenya is the place where I chose to live, and I am not going to let some terrorists scare me and make me feel unsafe in a country that I now call home.