Oil production may see change in country’s security landscape

Oil production may see change in country’s security landscape – Symposium facilitator

Jul 08, 2017 News

The security landscape in Guyana may very well change within the coming three years before, and immediately after, oil starts coming out of the ground. Adjusted security landscape in a country is said to be a common spin-off of the presence of big oil companies in developing countries around the world.
Dr. Kennedy Mkutu, an associate professor of the United States International University Africa, spoke about this phenomenon yesterday.
Dr. Mkutu was one of the facilitators at the just concluded “Oil Curse and its Prevention” symposium that was hosted by the Caribbean Institute of Forensic Accounting (CIFA) and the Guyana Oil and Gas Association (GOGA)
At that forum, Dr. Mkutu delivered a presentation that focused on security governance and the extractive industry in Turkana – the second largest and northwesternmost County in Kenya – looking at how the presence of oil raises new challenges in terms of policing and private security industry, gun control and community security.
That presentation was extensive. Dr. Mkutu spoke about resource abundance being a strong predictor of incidence of civil war. The resource curse at the local level, governance problems and the need for proper legal landscape were also topics that Dr. Mkutu touched on during his presentation, and so were security governance and the dwelling of security firms in resource- rich countries.
During an interview after his presentation, Dr. Mkutu explained why the security landscape of a country often changes with the coming of oil. He said that many oil companies usually import their own security to guard the commodity.
“How do countries monitor this (private security, guns, etc., that are in the country)?” he asked.
Dr. Mkutu said that oil companies often say that the police forces and private security firms in certain countries may not be enough, or may not have the level of expertise that they require.
“They usually say that they want security companies that they trust and that they think are competent,” said Dr. Mkutu.
“So what do they do? They bring their own guys.”
He said that the importation of security personnel can have several spin-off effects – one being an outcry from local security firms.
“They (local security firms) might say, what about us? We have been sidelined, we have been bypassed. How does a country deal with these issues? Strategy needs to begin now,” said Dr. Mkutu.
The associate professor said that this is not a matter to be taken lightly by government and citizens of nations, as the monitoring of security firms as well as the amount of weaponry in a country, has been proven to be of utmost importance.

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Oil production may see change in country’s security landscape – Symposium facilitator

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