More than 25 national police reservists (NPRs) have been arrested and sacked in connection to criminal activities in the restive Kerio Valley, Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen has said.
More than 200 other suspects have also been arrested in the security operation launched in March 2023 dubbed Operation Maliza Uhalifu , with more 200 illegal guns also seized, the CS said on Friday in Kampi Samaki, Baringo North during a security meeting.
The security meeting was attended by Deputy-Inspector General of Police Eliud Lagat, Rift Valley Regional Commissioner Hassan Abdi, Rift Valley Police Commander Jasper Ombati and security teams from Baringo.
“We have recovered more than 200 illegal guns since the Operation Maliza Uhalifu started in March 2023 and 200 suspects have been arrested. More than 17,000 stolen livestock have also been recovered,” said CS Murkomen.
“We deployed NPRs in the affected counties in the North Rift Region to supplement security officers but instead of assisting in beefing up security, some engaged in criminal activities. For that reason, we have arrested and sacked more than 25 NPRs linked to the spate of attacks in Kerio Valley.”
Deputy Inspector-General of Police Eliud Lagat, Inspector-General of Police Douglas Kanja, Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen and Rift Valley Regional Commissioner Abdi Hassan on April 28, 2025 in Chesongoch, Elgeyo Marakwet County.
Photo credit: Jared Nyataya | Nation
Mr Murkomen said they will not involve politicians in the fresh vetting of reservists, but the NPRs should come from the community.
“From today onwards, they will have an accountability mechanism in that they will report to the OCS. We are going to vet and train them afresh. We do not want to train a militia who later go and engage in criminal activities,” the CS said.
Anyone who has served as a reservist will be under constant surveillance, even those who are sacked, he added.
Despite efforts to restore peace in the region, there are still pockets of unrest in Baringo North, Tiaty Central, Kerio Valley and Kolowa Sub-Counties, Mr Murkomen said.
He also raised concerns that children in Tiaty Constituency, who are supposed to be in school, have been recruited into banditry.
“How come that the multi-agency team carrying out security operations in this region are fighting with minors between 15 and 17 years? They are perpetrators of crime but also victims because they grow up in a society where they know that there is no school, but know how to operate a gun,” said Murkomen while addressing more than 200 chiefs from the insecurity prone Baringo North, Baringo South, Tiaty East, Tiaty West and Kolowa Sub-Counties.
The sentiments come barely two days after CS Murkomen said that police reservists will be vetted and trained afresh, and that those found to be collaborating with criminals will be sacked and made to face the law.
At a security meeting at Chesongoch in Kerio Valley that brought together security officials from Baringo, West Pokot and Elgeyo Marakwet counties, Murkomen said that all NPRs in the region will be vetted afresh over claims that some are using their guns for criminal activities.
Since March 2023, more than 500 police reservists have been enlisted in the insecurity prone Baringo North, Baringo South and Tiaty to help police officers in restoring sanity in the region.
Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen and Deputy Inspector-General of Police Eliud Lagat at a camp in Chesongoch, Elgeyo Marakwet County on April 28, 2025.
Photo credit: Jared Nyataya | Nation
Due to the spate of attacks at the time, political leaders and locals in Baringo County had demanded that the government reinstate national police reservists in the banditry prone areas.
They claimed that armed criminals were taking advantage of the rugged terrain and harsh weather conditions to attack security officers deployed in the area to recover stolen livestock and restore calm.
The reservists, it said, are recruited from the affected villages and are familiar with bandits' hideouts and escape routes.
More than 450 NPRs from the volatile Tiaty, Baringo North and Baringo South sub-counties were disarmed in May 2019 in what the government described as a registration exercise to capture the biometrics of all reservists and ensure that the right people are recruited to serve.
“Most of the NPRs in this region are aligned to politicians and were not disseminating their duties as required. Plans are underway to do a fresh vetting and training of the officers to ensure that the right people are enlisted to avoid misuse of guns and they (the guns) will be returned [to them] once the exercise is complete,” said the then Baringo Police Commander, Robinson Ndiwa.
Before the disarmament of the reservists, some local leaders in Kerio Valley had also raised concerns that security officers deployed in the insecurity prone areas were using their firearms illegally to engage in banditry.
