Fight against Shabaab: Boni forest police reservists frustrated over poor pay
Baringo North police boss Chemonges Ndiema addresses police reservists about insecurity at Sibilo in Baringo North on February 24, 2017. PHOTO | CHEBOITE KIGEN | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- Reservists say pay can delay for more than five months
- They say they live in constant fear as they are targets of Al-Shabaab
Police reservists deployed to terror hotspots on the border and around Boni forest have decried poor remuneration by the government as they fight terror groups in villages.
Speaking to Daily Nation yesterday in Masalani, Garissa County, some of the officers expressed their dissatisfaction with how the government has handled them, saying they also live in fear.
"Some of us have been deployed to the furthest point near Boni forest where these people (Al-Shabaab) are hiding. We go for operations daily looking for any suspicious characters, but we are not getting the expected benefits from the government," said a reservist who requested to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal.
TERROR CELLS
He said by living among the communities with guns, the terror group regards them as government officers and as a result they become targets of the terrorists who have killed hundreds.
Two weeks ago, suspected Al-Shabaab terrorists executed two people after they isolated them from passengers heading to Garissa town from Hulugho in Sabenal.
Northeastern Regional Commissioner Mohamed Birik has recently said the government has deployed police reservists in 60 villages on the border in order to detect terror cells in the village.
According to the regional boss, the reservists who will also be under the local administrators will fight radicalisation in the mosque and other learning institution in terror-prone areas.
The Nation also established that the reservists, a majority of whom are former police officers, guard government installations including schools and hospitals in those villages.
Some of them are hosted in school compounds because according to some of the teachers, the reservists' presence gives them a sense of safety.
The reservists said they are expected to receive a stipend of Sh5,000 monthly, which is sometimes delayed for more than five months.
"We have been waiting for five months now and sometimes it goes for seven months. Unfortunately when it comes, it doesn't come with arrears of previous months," said another police reservist.
