NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 12 – President Uhuru Kenyatta on Friday ordered security agencies to “heighten vigilance and surveillance across the country” in light of ongoing conflicts in the region.
President Kenyatta gave the mandate following a National Security Council meeting at State House in Nairobi.
State House Press Office dispatched a brief statement saying the decision was anchored on “the country following the unfolding security situation in the region.”
President Kenyatta has been on the forefront in seeking cessation of hostilities between parties in the Tigray conflict in the neighbouring Ethiopia where rebels have vowed to overthrow Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government.
While meeting Ethiopia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Demeke Mekonnen who paid him a courtesy visit in November 2020, President Kenyatta urged parties to conflict in Ethiopia to find peaceful means to end the crisis.
He cautioned against a full-blown conflict in the country saying Kenya and Ethiopia have for long served as anchor states for regional peace and stability.
The Head of State urged the Federal Government and the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) to de-escalate the conflict saying the crisis risks eroding gains made by the Ethiopians in developing their country.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent troops into Tigray in November 2020 to fight the TPLF in response to rebel attacks on army camps.
Though the 2019 Nobel Peace laureate vowed a swift victory, by late June 2021 the TPLF had retaken most of the region including its capital Mekele.
Since then Tigray has been under what the UN describes as a de-facto humanitarian blockade.
The war, which has ravaged northern Ethiopia since November 2020, has been punctuated by accounts of massacres and mass rapes, with thousands of people killed and two million displaced.
