Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki says the state has made significant progress in tackling banditry in the North Rift region.
While speaking yesterday after inspecting progress on the establishment of new security facilities in the region, Kindiki said incidents of banditry in the Northern Rift Valley Region have been contained by 70 percent.
“The suppression of bandit terror will pave the way for the opening up of the region through social amenities, economic infrastructure, and durable peacebuilding programs spearheaded by the government but involving non-governmental stakeholders,” said Kindiki.
The CS went on to say the government aims to fully eradicate the menace of banditry and destroy its political, cultural, and commercial networks in 2024. Additionally, he shared a Boxing Day meal with officers serving on the frontlines at Karanga Joto, at the border of Baringo North and Tiaty Sub-Counties in Baringo County.
“I have distributed Christmas season celebration food items for Anti-Stock Theft Unit (ASTU), Rapid Deployment Unit (RDU) camps in Ngaratuko, Kagir, and Loruk and Loruk Police Station, Yatya Police Post, and local National Police Reservists (NPRs),” he stated.
He was accompanied by regional, county, and sub-county heads of security agencies and unit field commanders in the North Rift region.
Banditry in the North Rift has been a menace for a long time, with successive governments failing to eradicate it. Earlier this year, the Kenya Kwanza administration moved in with a multi-security agency approach, and it has since borne fruit.
Recently, police in Baringo arrested a suspected notorious bandit, Lonyangapat Amerinyang’, in Kapedo Akoret, Tiaty Sub-county. Police said he was on their radar for the last four years, and he is suspected to be the mastermind of the spat of banditry in the North Rift region.
