Rasso: Disarmament of police reservists bad for security

Saku MP Ali Rasso has raised concern over the manner in which disarmament of Kenya Police Reservists is being done, saying that it was a factor in the increased insecurity that is currently being witnessed in Marsabit County.

The concerns come just days after five people were killed in the volatile county, raising the number of those who have died due to the ongoing skirmishes, pitting the Borana, Gabra and Burji communities to 30.

PARTISAN

Mr Rasso accused the county security team of being partisan and applying selective justice in dealing with insecurity in the county.

However, the police service has ever since the programme started said that it had taken the rifles for normal inspection.

“There has been a disarmament programme of police reservists going on in the county but unfortunately they are targeting those from Saku Constituency and leaving the rest from other areas,” Mr Rasso told the Nation.

Mr Rasso said that the disarming of reservists who are attached to one of the three warring communities was questionable and proving to be counterproductive.

“Cattle rustlers who are armed are now taking advantage of the situation and they have made matters worse. We support the disarmament but is should be done across all the communities and not target only one group,” he said.

HERDERS KILLED

He cited an incident on May 23, when two herders from the Borana community were killed by gunmen and the following day, thugs overrun a Gabra family in Konso Bachale area in a retaliatory attack in which they killed two women and a child.

The MP raised concern over continuous displacement of people saying that it was the main factor that was barring the county government from providing services to the people.

“There is an agenda to undermine the devolve unit and make things hard for we political leaders in office. However, we shall not sit back and watch things going out of hand,” he said.

Last week, Marsabit Governor Mohamud Ali also condemned the increased insecurity and asked the police to arrest leaders who are fond of uttering inflammatory statements that could cause disunity among the communities in the county.

Marsabit police commandant Steve Oloo this week said the increased insecurity was a big concern to the police.