Renewed bandit attacks in the restive Baringo North and Baringo South sub-counties have dealt a big blow to efforts by the government to restore sanity in insecure border villages, with more than four people being killed in the last month alone.
Residents are now faulting the government for failing to tame insecurity and flush out bandits, despite an ongoing security operation mounted in February to seize illegal arms and arrest criminals wreaking havoc in the border villages.
The government in February mounted a multi-agency security operation in banditry-prone Baringo, Samburu, Laikipia, Turkana, West Pokot, and Elgeyo Marakwet counties in a bid to seize illegal arms and flush out armed criminals wreaking havoc.
The operation, still be ongoing, involves the Kenya Defense Forces (KDF), National Police Reservists (NPR), RDU, ASTU, and the General Service Unit (GSU).
Despite the ongoing operation, more than four people in the border villages in Baringo North and Baringo South Sub-Counties have been shot dead by armed criminals in just one month.
The latest killing happened on Saturday when a police reservist (NPR) was shot dead in Kiserian village, Baringo South, while another sustained a gunshot injury in an ambush by armed criminals in a 6 am attack.
The duo was headed to relieve their counterparts who were on a night shift guarding an excavator that is opening up the Kiserian-Mukutani security road, as part of the ongoing government initiative to open up the insecurity-prone villages and ease transport.
Last Wednesday, on October 11, a herder was also shot dead in Cherelyo village in Loruk, at the border of Baringo North and Baringo South sub-counties. Christopher Kipsang, 27, was herding livestock with two colleagues when they were ambushed by armed criminals who shot him in the back, killing him on the spot before fleeing.
A concerned resident, Mr Samuel Cheruiyot, wondered why the attacks were happening amid an ongoing multi-agency security operation that was mounted by the government since this year.
"Things are getting out of hand in these border villages. President William Ruto promised to tame the bandits, but the irony is that they have reduced us to poverty through continued attacks. We have now resorted to burning charcoal as they continue to wreak havoc in the region," lamented the distraught elder, who lost at least 36 cows to gunmen in a May raid.
In the same month, a university student and a police reservist were shot dead by gunmen in Kosile village in the same sub-county.
Baringo North MP Joseph Makilap claims the government is too lenient on armed criminals who continue to unleash terror on locals in the region.
"We blame the government for failing to arrest the suspects behind the spate of attacks, yet their names are known," said the MP.
Speaking during the Mashujaa Day celebrations at Marigat High School grounds, Baringo South MP Charles Kamuren claimed that illegal herders had invaded Kapindasum, Katilomwo, Ng'elecha, Tandare Valley and Arabal villages under the guise of seeking water and pasture for their cattle and blamed the local administration for failing to flush them out.
"The district police commander and the district commissioner have failed to implement Home Affairs CS Kithure Kindiki's order to flush out armed criminals in the affected villages. We have more than enough security personnel deployed in this region, including the military, yet the bandits are wreaking havoc," lamented Mr Kamuren.
During his tour of Kabartonjo, Baringo North on August 24, President Ruto issued a stern warning to armed criminals in the banditry-prone North Rift, saying they must be stopped to pave way for development.
He had announced that he was deploying more than 2,000 new security officers to the banditry-prone border villages in Baringo County, adding to the 3,000 previously deployed to restore sanity.
The President also urged the bandits who carried out the attacks to reform and engage in meaningful development, warning that if they did not do so, they would be wiped out.
“The perennial menace of insecurity must end once and for all. I will deploy police officers to an extent that criminals will have no loophole of staging more attacks,” Dr Ruto stated.
“We cannot be talking of banditry more than 60 years after independence. Let them dare me, they will face the wrath. If you are a bandit, you have three options; to flee this country, to be jailed, or death. Cattle rustling is primitive, backward, and stupid.”
