NAIROBI, Kenya Mar – Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki has ordered the immediate vacation of residents living in 27 gorges, escarpments, caves, ravines, hills, and forests as part of the new security measures to tame banditry in the northern part of the country.
Kindiki subsequently gave the residents in the affected areas from Baringo, Laikipia, Samburu, West Pokot, and Turkana Counties 24 hours to immediately evacuate effective Sunday.
“I, therefore, declare these areas as scenes of crime, and we will treat any person found therein as a suspect of armed banditry, or as a suspect of aiding and abetting banditry, or as an accessory after the fact. Everyone must evacuate immediately,” Kindiki stressed.
The affected areas in Baringo include Korkoron Hills, Tandare Valley and Silale Gorges.
Those in Laikipia include Mukogodo Forest, Kamwenje, Warero and Ndonyoriwo, Lekuruki Hills, Losos, and Kiape Caves, and Sieku Valley.
Affected areas in Samburu include Ltungai Conservancy, Longewan, Nasuur, Lochokia and Lekadaar Escarpments; Lolmolok Caves, Pura Valley, Malaso Escarpment and Suguta Valley.
And finally, those in Kapelbok, Nakwamoru, Lebokat, Ombollion, Nadome, and Kamur caves in Turkana County; the Turkwell Escarpment at the interface of West Pokot and Turkana Counties are to evacuate.
Kindiki accordingly emphasized that the new measures aim to decisively deal with the bandits who persist in causing the deaths of innocent lives and loss of property.
“We are taking this war to their hideouts by land and air, with all our weight and might and with all the strength that God has given us to effectively defeat this lamentable catalog of crimes against humanity,” he said.
Kindiki noted that “the toxic mix of bad terrain, weapon supply, and banditry leadership” were identified to be among the factors fuelling the activities of the bandits.
-Figures-
The latest measure to tame the banditry menace follows President William Ruto’s directive on March 10, 2023, who then ordered the upscaling of the war on bandits and their networks.
The Ministry of Interior’s official figures indicates that the bandits have killed over 135 innocent Kenyans, including 20 security officers, in the last seven months.
The government recently deployed officers from the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) to aid their colleagues in the National Police Service (NPS) in conducting the joint security operation to flush out the bandits.
Despite making these efforts, Kindiki criticized the bandits for “continuing to challenge authority with an incredible display of impunity”.
“I assure the people of Kenya that we shall neutralize every bandit who defies the Government and engages in the atrocious killing, maiming, and displacement of people from their homes,” Kindiki said.
