Shoot-to-kill order issued on armed bandits

The war on illegal guns went a notch higher with the Kenyan Government declaring a shoot-to-kill order on armed bandits. At the same time, those with the guns have one month to surrender them or face the music.

Issuing, the shoot-to-kill order in Marakwet, one of the districts most affected by banditry, DC John Ondego said: “Now that they maim their victims with little regard to life, why should we spare them?” Mr Ondego was speaking at Kapsowar Boys Secondary School during the Kenyatta Day celebrations on Tuesday.

Round the clock

The DC said security officers will set up road patrols round the clock. “Take the message to your criminal sons, let them be warned that should the police meet them and they fail to surrender, they will have it. This time round we have to kill them,” said the administrator as the public applauded him.

The DC pointed out the two days ago, robbers waylaid motorists and robbed them at gunpoint along Kapsowar Cheptongei-Eldoret road where a 35 year old business woman sustained gun wounds. He also cited the escalating livestock theft along the Marakwet-West and West Pokot border where the adjacent Kabolet forest had become the bandits' hideout.

Mr Ondego also said amnesty will be given to those who will surrender all illegal guns in their possession to the government. “Some settlers in Cherangany who are using Marakwets to steal cattle from their fellow tribesmen after and are even paying them some money to propagate the illegal trade,” revealed Mr Ondego.

He accused some women whom he said were harbouring armed criminals and giving them food in Kamoi, Kapterit, Kapkanyar and Kipsero border villages. And in Tana Delta district, wananchi (citizens) with illegal weapons have been given two months to surrender them.

“Failure to surrender the weapons clearly means you have declared war against the State and we are prepared to take you head-on,” District Commissioner Elias Kithaura warned. Mr Kithaura, who spoke at Garsen Primary School during the Kenyatta Day celebrations, said the government’s patience was running out over the influx of weapons and other small arms in the district.

He urged residents to take advantage of the amnesty period to hand over their weapons to chiefs, police officers and other state security agencies. Mr Kithaura told residents that the period to surrender illegal arms would start immediately after his announcement until December 20.

“The government has not failed in its obligation to provide security to its people and therefore those who arm themselves in the pretext of protecting their property should let us do our work and surrender those arms,” he said. The announcement comes in the wake of banditry and attacks by gangsters in various parts of the district.

Elsewhere, Moyale District Commissioner Joshua Nkatha on Wednesday gave area residents a one-month ultimatum to surrender illegal firearms to the police. If they fail to heed to the demand, Mr Nkatha said the government will carry out an operation to mop up the guns.

He had first given the ultimatum during Kenyatta Day celebrations but on Wednesday he officially wrote to all the chiefs in the district instructing them to start collecting the illegally held guns from residents. “If they (the chiefs) will not have collected all these illegal guns within a month, the government will carry out an operation to recover them,” the DC who spoke to Nation from his office said.

During his speech on Kenyatta Day, Mr Nkatha asked local residents to report anyone with illegal firearms to the police. Moyale is a town on the Kenya-Ethiopian border and has several illegal firearms smuggled from Ethiopia or Somalia where civilians own guns.

It is also a haven of members of Oromo Liberation Front who have been trying to oust the government of Ethiopia. Some of the guns used by the militia in their struggle to take over leadership land in the hands of Kenyan civilians.

Disarm communities

Meanwhile, North Rift deputy PC, Wilson Wanyanga has warned that insecurity in the region which is the nation’s grain basket will affect food yields in the country. The incoming deputy PC also issued a notice to those with illegal guns to surrender them ahead of a massive campaign to disarm communities.

Mr Wanyanga said the government will soon embark on an operation, dubbed Dumisha Amani II, to reclaim guns from the wrong hands in order to ensure permanent peace prevails in the country. The deputy PC who is in charge of Trans Nzoia and West Pokot districts, said the region is known to have thousands of illegal guns in private hands.

“The government will provide adequate security to all Kenyans, therefore no communities or individuals have an excuse why they should continue holding guns,” he told the public when he presided over celebrations to mark Kenyatta Day in Kitale’s Kenyatta stadium.

Mr Wanyanga’s remarks come against the backdrop of reports that communities in the province were busy stockpiling arms ahead of the 2012 elections.

Misuse of firearms

He said the operation to repossess illegal guns will target a number of districts among them West Pokot, Trans Nzoia, Turkana, Mt Elgon and Samburu.  Also, he appealed to area residents to volunteer information that could lead to successful disarmament.

In Kitale town, Mayor Charles Bonyo, has challenged the government to ensure that the Kenya Police Reservists were paid well to prevent misuse of their firearms. “How can you give them guns and not pay them? This matter must be addressed if the government is serious about dealing with insecurity,” he said.

By Philemon Suter, Muchemi Wachira, Dennis Ouma