Learning disrupted in Isiolo as police seize stolen livestock

Learning has been paralysed in nine schools within Ngaremara Ward in Isiolo following tension over Monday’s operation by police officers to recover stolen livestock.

Schools were learning has stopped because of the operation are: Chumvi Yere, Attan, Eriemet, Kiwanja, Kambi Garba, Samburu Complex, Ngaremara (secondary and primary), and Ngaremara Girls Secondary.

Photographs of pupils from Chumvi Yere Primary School taking cover under their desks in a classroom have surfaced online shared by local residents.

Pupils from Kiwanja and Chumvi Yere Primary schools were ordered by their teachers to lie down in their classrooms as gunshots rent the air.
No pupils or teachers were injured during the operation.

Security officials declined to respond to phone calls and were held up in a meeting at the county commissioner’s office for the better part of Tuesday.

Earlier, County Commissioner John Ondego said the government is targeting "the real bandits" amid claims from local leaders that police are targeting the local community in the "brutal" operation.

Last week, two police officers were killed. One was killed by armed bandits while loading livestock onto a lorry in Nachuroi while the second was shot dead by angry residents who stormed the Ngaremara Administration Police post.

Last month, at least three police officers were shot dead and six others injured in two separate operations in the same location.