Chiefs form northern Kenya call for better working conditions

A group of chiefs and their assistants from north-eastern Kenya have expressed their displeasure at what they call deplorable working conditions.

Speaking to the Nation in Garissa, the local administrators said despite playing a crucial role in administration, community mobilisation and fighting criminal activities in the insecurity-prone area, their good work was not being recognised, appreciated or compensated accordingly.

The chiefs said they have borne the brunt of extremist youth and other criminals, who target them since they are the immediate and vulnerable targets representing the State in the remote villages.

Those who spoke of their plight, however, declined to be named for fear of victimisation.

They referred to an incident in which three chiefs were killed in Mandera in 2014 by a suspected Somali-based terrorist group and said unlike their seniors who are provided armed security round the clock, they were exposed to attacks since they do not enjoy any protection.

IGNORED BY SENIORS

"We have been totally ignored by our bosses and the State. We are doing ninety per cent of the work in ensuring security prevails in our areas of jurisdiction.

We are the ones who mobilise communities towards government policies, but we are not taken care of," one of the chiefs lamented.

He added: "When recurrent insecurity occurs in our areas our bosses shift the blame on us and some are sometimes sacked or punished for failing to stop crime. But the same rule does not apply where we secure our areas from criminal activities and instead our bosses take the credit."

The administrators also lamented of lack of transport and financial support from the government, which they said would make them respond swiftly during emergencies noting that most of the time they depend on their meagre resources to do their work or ask local people to support them.

They further said most of them lack office to operate from while some are forced to pay the rents themselves for the offices they have rented.

FROSTY RELATIONS WITH POLICE

The administrators also spoke of frosty relations with the region’s security agents whom they accused of not recognising them as their partners in combating insecurity in the region.

"Police have no respect for us as chiefs. Sometimes we report impending security threats but they just shrug it off.

"That is why there is a wide gap between the police and local administrators," said a senior chief from the region.

They said that incidents of insecurity arising from terrorism, clan fights and banditry that occur in their areas of jurisdiction should not be blamed entirely on them since in many cases it is the other security organs who fail them by ignoring their advice.

"We work under extreme conditions and the government we are working for doesn't hear our pleas, imagine some of us have rented offices and we pay from our own pockets," one of them told Sunday nation.

North-eastern Kenya has witnessed several deadly terrorist attacks terrorism since the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) crossed the border to neighbouring Somalia in pursuit of Al-Shabaab militants.

Late 2014, more than 60 people were killed in Mandera by suspected Al-Shabaab militants who crossed over to the Kenyan border town of Mandera.

Early 2014, two chiefs were charged for failing to stop the destruction of seven water tanks, amongst other charges, after a clan fight broke between two communities in Garissa.

The local administrators said they fear for their lives and demand enhancement of their security or fire arms to protect them claiming sometimes they facilitate the arrest of high profile criminals in their areas which puts them at risk of retaliatory attacks.