Seven bandits shot dead by police in crackdown
Security officers evacuate women and children from Mukutani, on the border of Tiaty and Baringo South, on March 15, 2017. PHOTO | CHEBOITE KIGEN | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- There has been public outcry from a section of leaders from banditry ravaged regions in the county that nothing much has been achieved despite heavy deployment of the officers including the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) soldiers.
- According to Mr Musiambo, the operation to flush out armed bandits and mop up illegal firearms in Baringo and Laikipia counties is not targeting a particular community but criminals wreaking havoc in the region.
Seven bandits were killed on Tuesday evening as security officials stepped up the war on cattle rustling in the North Rift region.
One police officer was seriously injured during the shoot-out with bandits at Akwichatis in Tiaty sub-county, Baringo County.
Police recovered an AK-47 rifle from the bandits who are said to have been planning a raid on neighbouring villages. Baringo County police commandant Peter Ndung’u said more than 17 rounds of ammunition were also recovered.
“The criminals engaged the security officers and, in the process, one officer was injured but we shot dead seven of them and recovered a gun,” Mr Ndung’u told the Daily Nation on Wednesday. He said the crackdown will continue until they seize all illegal firearms in the area.
There has been a public outcry in banditry-ravaged regions in the county with leaders saying nothing much has been achieved despite the heavy deployment of the officers, including the Kenya Defence Forces.
The commandant denied that security forces were burning houses and shops and bombing livestock.
“We encounter bandits hiding in houses so as to ambush the police and as we fight with them the houses get razed down,” said Mr Ndung’u.
The shooting occurred as more than 1,200 police reservists were posted to the volatile regions in the North Rift and Laikipia to boost security.
According to the Rift Valley regional coordinator Wanyama Musiambo, the reservists had uniforms and a firearm each and were at insecurity-prone areas in five counties in the region.
Some 240 of them have been taken to Elgeyo-Marakwet, West Pokot County (220), Baringo North (151), Baringo South (142), Laikipia (200), Turkana (200) and Samburu (70).
After the August elections, the reservists will get further training at the Kenya Wildlife Service training camp in Manyani. The reservists will also be put under a monthly government stipend and will have a distinct structure with a director based at Vigilance House in Nairobi.
“They will be trained on some police courses including discipline and proper handling of firearms such as cleaning and other basics,” Mr Musiambo said yesterday during a tour of West Pokot and Turkana counties.
“We know training should have preceded issuance of guns but because the reservists are know the terrain, we decided to use them right away.”
Speaking at Kapenguria police headquarters during the deployment of the reservists sent to West Pokot, police commandant Mathews Kuto said five out of the 240 reservists commissioned by Deputy President William Ruto in February in Marakwet East without training have either been killed or injured by bandits in Kerio Valley.
He said the new security officers will be taken to areas identified as hotspots along the borders of West Pokot and Elgeyo-Marakwet counties.
Reported by Florah Koech, Wycliffe Kipsang, Philemon Suter and Oscar Kakai
