The holiday season is on, so please spare a minute to read this :
• “KENYA OUR BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY IS CHANGING, SO SHOULD KENYANS!!” •
~ Kenyans and the other beautiful people, please take time and read this ‘public alert notice’, maybe the life saved might be your ‘own!’.
The words ‘terrorists’, ‘bombs’, ‘I.E.D’s’, ‘grenades’ etc has found a new home in our country, how long it’d stay with us is still a mystery that no one can unravel at this point.
– WHILE consoling families for those people who are victims to various heinous terrorist attacks, we also take this chance to learn what to do in a situation where an “EXPLOSION” has occurred.
Unfortunately in Kenya the “cowards” are using brutal attacks hence killing innocent people without notice. In civilized attacks, the attackers would give a warning of 2-3 hours before the ‘explosion’ occurs. This helps to evacuate the innocent people and more so avoid deaths. Mostly, they are after property destruction just to drive their point home and not after human lives!
In our situations, we don’t know when and where the attack is next and maybe the person beside you is the one carrying an ‘explosive device’ ready to detonate and attack without warning.
So here are some tips which might help you :-
– By all means try to avoid crowded places as much as you can. Kenyans, we love ‘eating politics’ and ‘soccer’ at the bus stops, kiosks, markets, media vendors, shoe shine points, bodaboda stages and at mushkaki-mahindi choma points, please, such gatherings are targets of the evil killers, the – “ni gumzo mtaani” has to end.
– In bus stops, learn to queue. We have a tendency of standing in a clumped manner (standing in a heap) an attacker will kill more people when we are clustered. If we queue, be it at a bus-stop, office or anywhere else, the killer damage would be minimized.
– Once, not long ago when the words ‘terrorists’, ‘bombs’, ‘grenades’, ‘I.E.D’s’, had not yet entered our daily use dictionaries – when heading to work we used to pop in and out of our beautiful shuttle busses like innocent kids going for picnic, but now that’s all history!
– Something new has just cropped up, the religious fanatics and killers now demand their victims to shout some few phrases to escape being slaughtered in cold blood.
Please learn some few Islamic verses like,
– Bissimillahi rahmani rahim
– Allahu Akbar
– Ash-hadu Allah illaha illahllah wa Ash-hadu anna Muhammad dan rassullullah
and if possible learn to cram the seven simple verses of ‘Al-fatiha’ the Key chapter in Islam.
These few phrases might save your life in the most unexpected time.
Be prepared and learn to be frisked by the bus crews at all times without complaining about the little ‘ping’ metal detectors before you board the public commuter buses. Take this initiative seriously, the life you save might be your own if not of your loved one, a brother or a sister! Always make sure the person who sits next to you with a small luggage by the side alights with the luggage when descending, if not raise an alarm to alert everyone in the bus immediately.
– At all times be alert, well, the ‘police’ alone can’t protect us! We have to join hands. A person ready to attack is always very anxious and would act suspiciously, so be on the lookout and if you notice such people, keep distance and always remember to thank God for that fifth sense!
– We are all too anxious to go home at 5.00pm and to go for lunch at 1.00pm, the attacker also knows that we are all in hotels and bus-stops at this time, so if you can delay for at least 15-30 minutes to the rush hour, you stand a better chance of being ‘late’ for the ‘explosion’!
– If the explosion goes off, please don’t run towards it to see what’s happening. Attackers use initial small explosions as crowd pullers. Once people gather in our usual ‘Kenyans way’ that’s when the real explosion comes. So, please walk away when you hear the first explosion, in-fact walk thanking God that you are alive.
– If an explosion goes off in a close vicinity near you, lie down flat to the ground, cover your face and entire head if you can. By the way, if you hear the explosion it means you are lucky. Those who’re hit never had the chance to hear anything, they were struck before the sound reached them. So, by diving flat to the ground the flying particles and debris would most probably miss you.
In case of smoke inhalation or should you find yourself in a room with thick black smoke, fall down on your knees and crawl towards the door or any other ‘fresh air’ exit point nearest to you.
– Don’t play detective. We tamper with a lot of evidence by turning things upside down as we try to save people. Please, we don’t have to deploy ‘police’ to do crowd control in such scenes. Lets control ourselves by standing at a distance and so avoid obstructing the experts and the emergency crews from accessing and securing the scenes. If possible go and watch it on TV, always remember to give way to security and the emergency crews immediately when they appear at the scenes of crimes.
– Never trust the ‘strangers’ on the streets. Beware, while moving in the same direction like you, the stranger next to you would abruptly pretend to be in a process of fastening the shoe laces, politely asking you to relieve him of the ‘small baggage’ from his hands, preferably in the form of a portable radio, d.v.d., or other similar appealing electronic gadgets, – “bro, hebu nishikie hii kidogo nifunge viatu!”; only for him to remain at a safe distance while you move ahead, before he abruptly detonates the same ‘parcel’ that you’ve been holding so innocently with a hand-held remote sensor thereby blowing you and others around, to pieces!
– Please, beware of GRENADE attack! A ‘grenade’ attack is so lethal, happens so fast and leaves no room for escape except to do the following.
The attacker would just toss the ‘cob-like’ grenade without notice at the most unexpected time into a group of people, almost instantaneously mayhem would break loose!!
So the first to arrive at the scene should prepare the injured for evacuation to the nearest ‘medical facilities’ within the the proximity of the accident, those with knowledge on first-aid should come handy! However, should any Medical team surface earlier at the scene, then please, just be good Kenyans, pull aside and let them take charge!!
– Conclusively, the ‘nyumba kumi’ security concept if taken holistically and in good faith, is a step in the right direction. Always take note of strangers within your neighborhood and locality, should you be suspicious about some strangers and their deeds or movements within your area or elsewhere then don’t hesitate to inform the ‘nyumba kumi’ headman, Mzee-mtaa, or report to the security agents near you.
Patriotism demands sacrifice, please, sacrifice part of your comforts for the security of our great country and for the generations to come. You’ve to be your brother’s keepers all the time so that your brother next door would be your keeper too!
– Killing and shedding the blood of the innocent souls irrespective of colour, creed or religion is heinous and unacceptable in a civilized world.
It’s the evil hands of the ‘satan’ that kills innocent kids and beautiful people indiscriminately. ‘Terrorists’ is just but a name and a title given to describe the killer devil’s handwork!
– Finally, we do need God. Let us always pray that God will keep us safe. With God on our side nothing is impossible!
‘Thanks!’ for sparing your precious time to read this, stay Blessed!
Beautiful Country is always for Beautiful People just like you and me!! So, spread the word!
ABDALLAHJEI. 