Gov’t Should Now End The Recurring Banditary Attacks In North Rift

By: Joseph Mutua Ndonga

Worth Noting:

• At a meeting held State House Nakuru, Dr Ruto ordered a joint operation between Kenya Defense Forces (KDF) and National Police Service (NPS).
• Ruto vowed to end the menace. “We are coming for you. This operation starts tomorrow. We have given those bandits three days to surrender illegal firearms”, he stated.
• It was good to hear the president saying this. “My administration will employ different strategies to deal with this menace and madness”.
• During the Kibaki era, KDF personnel were deployed to restore sanity in Mount Elgon and similar operations were carried out in other areas of North Rift. During the reign of the founding President Jomo Kenyatta, the military was deployed to fight Shifta war in North Eastern.

The recurring problem of banditry attacks is not something new. This is one of the challenges that had been confronting all the governments that have ruled our country since independence in 1963.

The government would talk tough every time that these incidents reared ugly heads.

The attacks have lately increased in bandits-prone areas of North Rift. Many civilians have been killed and this includes students and pupils.

Many Schools have been closed. Schools, dispensaries, churches and police vehicles have been burnt.

The burial preparations for four police officers, who are among the latest casualties, are underway.

For decades, intelligence reports indicated the bandits had been using sophisicated lethal firearms which were more powerful than those used by the security officers. Where were they getting these firearms? Who was arming them?

The chilling acts of the bandits were mainly associated with cases of cattle-rustling.

Whenever they unleashed the terror, you would hear that they stole and herded away this number of animals.

If look at these bandits, you would realize thier life was not improving economically.

As we know, the value of the animals was very high and so this was a lucrative business. Who were the beneficiaries?

A number of local leaders would point finger at some top politicians and regional administrators and security officials.

In the wake of latest attacks, I heard these leaders calling on President William Ruto to deploy KDF to troubled areas.

The President immediately heeded thier call, a clear indication he was not taking this matter lightly.

At a meeting held State House Nakuru, Dr Ruto ordered a joint operation between Kenya Defense Forces (KDF) and National Police Service (NPS).

Ruto vowed to end the menace. “We are coming for you. This operation starts tomorrow. We have given those bandits three days to surrender illegal firearms”, he stated.

It was good to hear the president saying this. “My administration will employ different strategies to deal with this menace and madness”.

This left me with no doubt he had learnt big lessons.

As we know, he had served the previous governments of presidents Moi, Kibaki and Uhuru at the high echolen of leadership.

During the Kibaki era, KDF personnel were deployed to restore sanity in Mount Elgon and similar operations were carried out in other areas of North Rift. During the reign of the founding President Jomo Kenyatta, the military was deployed to fight Shifta war in North Eastern.

At the time, incidences of KDF officers resorting to targeting innocent locals, harrassing and raping women were reported.

This is my unsolicited advise to our beloved President Ruto. The government should work closely with the locals. This will help a lot in terms of gathering intelligence reports.

Civic education is also needed.  Let the locals know that the operation was for thier own good. If you hide these criminals, you will continue to bear the brunt of these attacks.

You will not only continue to lose your people but your region will continue to lag behind in matters of development.

With this, the exercise will succeed. This is terms of disarming the warring communities and bringing to book the ring-leaders of bandits.

KDF and NPS should only use force to those who refuse to surrender firearms and engage them in shootouts.

There is also need for the government to find out where these weapons were coming from.

If they were being smuggled from the neighboring countries, this would require security across the border to be beefed up.

The state should also investigate reports that top government officials were beneficiaries. If yes, ensure they have faced the full force of law.

Joseph Mutua Ndonga is a writer and political analyst based in Nairobi