Sunday’s early morning stampede at the University of Nairobi’s Kikuyu Campus is a sad indictment of the state of security in our country. If Kenyans are united at the moment, one thing brings us all together – fear. That students mistook an exploding transformer to be another Al Shabaab attack is an unfortunate reminder of how vulnerable the average Kenyan feels towards a potential terror attack.

Except for the one death, the other statistics were eerily similar to the attack on Garissa University College. Both incidents occurred at dawn and while 148 died in Garissa, 137 were seriously injured in Kikuyu.

YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN

Beneath the veneer of confidence written on every Kenyan’s face, the panic-fuelled stampede at Kikuyu campus reveals the real fear and despondency hidden within. While we may put up a show of unshaken pride with popular hash tags and slogans like WeAreOne and KenyaUnbowed on social media, the reality is that when push comes to shove, Al Shabaab have bent us out of shape and watered down whatever confidence we had in our security organs and institutions.

From Westgate to Garissa right down to the Kikuyu stampede, the message is settled in every Kenyan’s mind – you are on your own.

On the other hand, the stampede shows that while Kenyans have learnt a few survival tricks, the government is still stuck in the twin ruts of indecision and detached aloofness in the face of adversity.

The students sustained serious injuries after jumping from rooms as high as the sixth floor in what was a clear trade off between risking death in the process of fleeing danger or huddling into wardrobes and underneath beds only to be flushed out and get shot anyway. Garissa has taught us to take our security into our own hands. Apparently, hell will freeze before KDF and GSU units come to your rescue so why not chance an arm and a leg to save your soul?

WING AND A PRAYER

On the other hand, the Kikuyu Campus stampede shows up the government in all its ugly ineffectiveness. To begin with, the affected students claim the police showed up one hour after the commotion which paints a poor picture of what might have been had the students been in real dire straits. Secondly, I’ve gone through all the media reports and none of them records a response from the police or any high-ranking government official. They all can’t wait for such news to get swept under the carpet. But the authorities’ lack of communication begs the question, if they cannot take advantage of such minor incidents to polish their disaster management skills, how do they expect to go the full nine yards when the real terror is on?

In the final analysis, Al Shabaab have now made us fearful of even our own shadows regardless of what the government says. While terrorism is now a real and existential threat, the sad reality is that the average Kenyan still operates on a wing and a prayer.

* Nelson Morang'a is a Kenyan blogger. Read his posts here.

* THE VIEWS OF THE ABOVE ARTICLE ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHOR/S AND DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE PAMBAZUKA NEWS EDITORIAL TEAM

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