Nairobi, Kenya, Jan 5 – In Kenya’s Kerio Valley, gun-toting bandits rule with an iron fist.
For decades, parts of Baringo, Elgeyo Marakwet, West Pokot, and Laikipia Counties have become synonymous with bandit raids that have left hundreds dead and thousands displaced.
The modus operandi of these criminal gangs involves cattle raids, ambushes, and indiscriminate shooting of their victims striking fear among locals who continue to bear the brunt of the continuous assaults that have literally turned the Kerio belt into hell on earth.
Security personnel have not been spared either in the onslaught. In 2012, armed bandits killed 42 police officers in one of the deadliest attacks in Baragoi’s Suguta valley.
The latest attack on security agents came in September last year where eight police officers were among 11 people killed following a bandit attack in Turkana County blamed on Pokot rustlers.
The attempts by the successive governments to get rid of the bandits in the Nort Rift region including placing boots on the ground and enlisting the local National Police Reservists have flopped as criminal gangs have turned the area into their playground with no regard for the law.
The big question of what should be done to permanently end banditry in the North still remains unanswered.
The recent killings of two girls from the same family by suspected armed bandits within Kotut, Endo ward, Marakwet East Constituency has reignited the debate on the solutions to banditry in the expansive North Rift region.
A section of leaders from the region are now proposing the amendment of the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2012 to include banditry and cattle rustling.
The move, they argue will pave way for more lethal and decisive action against the perpetrators of these vices.
Senate majority leader Aaron Cheruiyot said Tuesday during a security meeting in Elgeyo Marakwet’s Chesongoch area that the Government needs to come up with a more decisive action to address insecurity in the region.
Cheruiyot argued that the Government should prioritize using the military to restore peace in violent-prone areas before sending them to peacekeeping missions abroad.
“In Mathew 26:52 Jesus says those who live by the sword should die by the sword. It is Biblical,” Cheruiyot said during a meeting that was also attended by Interior Cabinet secretary Kithure Kindiki and his Roads’ counterpart Kipchumba Murkomen.
“There is no more need for us to take our troops to Somalia and Congo. Let that Congo be Chesongoch,” the Kericho Senator added.
Elgeyo Marakwet Women Representative Caroline Ngelechei also echoed Cheruiyot’s sentiments saying such kind of criminals should be met with the full force of the law.
She noted that the region has suffered for a long time over persistent attacks saying the government has failed to keep its promise of restoring order.
“At this time, no single perpetrator has been brought to justice. All of the criminals still roam freely in the valley. We want the government to act, and once the offenders are apprehended, they should face execution by the firing squad,” she said.
“What we are witnessing in Kerio Valley is robbery with violence, and such criminals deserve life imprisonment or, at the very least, the hangman’s noose because their deeds are equivalent to terrorism,” she added.
Homabay Town MP Peter Kaluma recently pledged to propose legislation in parliament to make cattle rustling a capital offense.
“Rustling is robbery with violence. This new year, I’ll bring a Bill to make rustling punishable by Death upon conviction,” Kaluma said on January 2.
“Violent robbery and murder can no longer be treated as mere misdemeanor punishable by some minimal fines and justified by some backward cultural practices,” he added.
On his part Kakamega Senator Boni Khalwale while commenting on the same said his attempt to table a similar Bill was opposed by the Rift valley region.
“In 2006, I moved a Bill classifying cattle rustling as a capital offence punishable by death/life imprisonment. Rift Valley MPs marshalled numbers and defeated the Bill. Hon Poghisho famously warned me to stick to bullfighting and keep off their local sport,” Khalwale said.
Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki has pledged to reinstate the National Police Reservists in 14 bandit-prone counties who had been withdrawn by former President Uhuru Kenyatta’s regime.
The Interior CS who spoke in Elgeyo Marakwet Tuesday faulted the decision to withdraw the close to 10,000 NPRs from the North by the past administration noting it gave the bandits a free rein to execute their criminal activities.
“That was an unfortunate decision,” he said.
