Hi members.

I listened to the presidents speech on security and after deep thought I realised he knew what he was talking about. Although at some point he was angry he was right.

The reason why I am saying this is because i have seen what he is advising working elsewhere. Let me be specific.

I first set my foot in Botswana in 1986, during which time I was a very young man but adventurous, stayed until the year 2009 when I decided to come back to Kenya.

For all those years that I stayed in Botswana, the presidents Masire, Mogae and even Ian Khama rarely talked about security within and at the borders.

You see in the late 80s and early 90s, the political situation in Southern Africa was chaotic, South Africa was not good due to the apertheid regime and freedom struggle, in Namibia as people were fighting for independence and in Angola as the civil war ranged. In all the cases freedom fighters and other people were crossing over to Botswana as it was seen to be the safest. In early to mid 90s things in Zimbabwe started moving from worse to worst and the result more immigrants to Botswana.

All in all more than a half a million emigrants crossed over to Botswana through the gazetted border points and others unaccounted for through panya routes, but how did Botswana manage to maintain the safety of its citizen despite that huge number of foreigners/immigrants influx and being a country surrounded by politically unstable states at the time:

1.Socially
(a) The citizen responsibility. A local had to know who the neighbour was with no reminder from anybody. If a local noticed a neighbour who was hardly seen he/she reported it to the nearest police station and Immigration and the two bodies immediately swung into action.

(b) It was in law that each and every plot Land Registration (LR) No be conspicuously displayed at the point of entry (gates or doors). When you filled any forms be it employment, utilities or any other application forms the most important social data was your name and physical address (residential LR No, the Road and estate). The landlords were required by the law to keep a database on their foreigner tenants and were required to share it with the immigration. This way the government knew who was staying where and when they needed you they came for you at any time.

(c) If foreigners sought asylum as refugees then they remained in the refugee camp, no mingling with other people. If you were caught, and it was established that you have refugee status, repatriation right away.

(d) The Batswana fear and respect the law. It spares no one, not the rich, not the poor, not the mighty. It was applied equally to all irrespective of their social status.

(e) Botswana was and is still the least corrupt country in Africa. When it came to getting services which you needed by right, nobody claimed to be doing you any favour and everybody kept off from corruption. Under such circumstances, they ran a very efficient impartial public service and police force.

2. Commercially...
(a) A local could and would not sell any land or property to a foreigner. No law prohibited them from doing it, but this intention was to keep foreigners from owning anything in that country and consequently keeping them at bay.

(b) Any company that intended to buy any property had to have a majority stake owned by citizens. NB majority shareholder meant more than 70%.

(c) The labour laws were and are still very strict. No company irrespective of the owners (whether foreign or locally owned) was allowed to employ foreigners in posts whose job skills and expertise was locally available.

If we draw political paralells between Kenya and Botswana we have almost everything in common. I know most of us will still argue that our social structures are completely different but when it comes to matters security this goes beyond social structures. Security is a collective effort and responsibility between the citizenry and the government.

Let us sit back as Kenyans and do a little reflection. Socially and commercially, where have we succeeded in assisting the government of the day to give us the security that we need.

Let us discuss this objectively and soberly.