Paradigm Shift in Kenyans Security Intelligence Service :a Case Study of Kenya, 1963-2010

Abstract

This research contributes to the role of Security intelligence service in Kenya as one of the arms of Administration of Justice from 1963 to 2010 anchored on a background of the pre colonial, colonial, and post independence periods. It establishes a paradigm shift in its attempt to depart from the traditional modus operandi. The paper identifies some of the elements of traditional intelligence operations and the colonial period establishment of African spies, the Special Branch (SB), Directorate of Security Intelligence (DSI), National Security Intelligence Service (NSIS) and subsequently National Intelligence Service (NIS. The dynamics of both state and non state actors, realism to liberalism prospectus are considered. The Kenya intelligence system’s image received a boost when it was factored in the New Constitution of 2010 albeit the public clamour for more transparency and accountability with its role changing from both executive and advisory to being purely advisory and the need for a bottom up approach. Since post- cold war era, an upsurge in international terrorism, innovation in information and communication technology, cyber crime, fear of the use of Weapons of Mass Destruction, globalization and ever widening democratic space have called for the need to shift focus in terms of threats and priorities in intelligence operations hence the need to understand the policy maker. Additionally Security Intelligence in developing countries has not been researched on unlike in the developed world where its curriculum is offered in Public and Private Institutions hence the attempt by this research to contribute to the field.