Interior CS Fred Matiang’i, National Police Service,Inspector General Hilary Mutyambai addresses residents at Bulimbo primary school in Matungu when Matiangi toured the Sub-county to address security in the area on May 16, 2019. [Benjamin Sakwa/Standard]
Top security officials met North Rift leaders on Wednesday and explained to them why the ongoing disarmament of reservists and civilians has to continue.
The leaders from North Rift, Samburu and Marsabit trooped to Harambee House in Nairobi seeking to know why the Government was pressing on with the security exercise.
Officials aware of the meeting said the leaders met Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i, Inspector General of Police Hillary Mutyambai and Secretary for Internal Security Moffat Kangi.
The Government officials told the leaders it was the State’s duty to protect its people.
They said Uganda had disarmed its citizens, adding that it was imperative that Kenya, too, succeeds in the initiative.
The officials are said to have revealed that the Government had created security buffers between warring neighbouring communities in troubled regions.
Officers from the Anti-Stock Theft Unit have set up camp in Kamilei, Mwiteta and Wagwachi along the border of Baringo and Laikipia counties.
The General Service Unit (GSU) has been deployed at Kabyego between West Pokot and Marakwet Counties, Tiati in Baringo South, and Kapedo and Lokori along Pokot and Turkana counties.
Mr Mutyambai said the GSU camp at Shaba had been moved to Archers Post while the Rapid Deployment Unit had been deployed to Mlango, a corridor between Isiolo and Laikipia Counties.
Mutyambai said the ongoing verification and registration of guns in the hands of the National Police Reservists (NPR) would continue to help tame rising cases of cattle rustling.
Some local leaders have opposed the move, saying it exposes their people to attacks from rival communities.
But the police boss said they had put measures in place to address residents’ fears.
Mutyambai had earlier said a team sent to the North Rift last week established the presence of cartels involved in cattle rustling, whose members sometimes used unregistered NPR ammunition to intimidate, maim or kill innocent victims.
The police boss warned that anyone found with an unregistered firearm would be treated as a combatant.
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North Rift leadersGovernmentHillary MutyambaiFred Matiang’iSafetySamburu
