The Cabinet Secretary for Interior Kithure Kindiki has said the security situation in Turkana County has considerably improved since the commencement of Operation Maliza Uhalifu a year ago.
Kindiki spoke in Lodwar, Turkana on Thursday after meeting the security and intelligence team.
He said the recruitment, training and deployment of National Police Reservists (NPRs) have significantly augmented the efforts of the formed-up units of the security agencies and resulted in normalcy on the Kitale-Lodwar Highway and several other areas within Turkana County that were experiencing insecurity.
“We have been here to review the security situation in Turkana about the ongoing operation to deal with challenges of banditry and cattle rustling. We have made some progress but we still have some problems,” he said.
He said having accessed the security situation in Turkana they tend to increase the number of NPRs in Turkana to 468 to work closely with the security team.
Kindiki said the NPRs will be deployed to Turkana East, Turkana South, Loima, Nadapal in Lokichogio, Kibish and Todonyang in Turkana North to beef up security.
He said they will increase the number of administrative units so that they can have government security enforcement and infrastructure close to the people.
He said he would operationalize the three remaining sub-counties that’s Aroo, Lokiriama and Suguta within two weeks.
He revealed that at least 6,800 livestock have been stolen by suspected criminals from the neighbouring West Pokot County in six months.
“In the last six months, 6,800 livestock have been stolen in Turkana County by suspected criminals from the neighbouring West Pokot County,” he said.
“Out of the 6,800 livestock stolen, we have recovered 5,600 and 1,200 are outstanding. We have directed the security and intelligence team to look for the remainder of the livestock, recover and hand over to the owners.”
“Our officers are doing the best and the government is supporting them by modernizing their equipment because we don’t want to have causality among the law enforcement officers,” he said.
He said last week, he commissioned the equipment and some of them are destined for Turkana County to beef up security.
“Our assurance to the people of Turkana and Northrift at large is we are not yet there but we are getting there. The equipment which has come will be supplemented by another equipment in two weeks which includes air assets which will coordinate with ground teams,” he said.
He said the air assets are armoured and they can carry out kinetic operation from the air.
