• Knut tells members to flee as their lives are not worth risking in the banditry countryside
• Governor Tolgos urges Matiang'i to visit and deploy specialised security officers in the region as he did in Matungu
More than 2,000 children are out of schools in Kerio Valley after their parents fled the region in the latest banditry attacks.
Eight people, among them a GSU officer, have been killed in the past two weeks.
Twenty schools along the Pokot and Marakwet border are deserted.
Elgeyo Marakwet Governor Alex Tolgos on Wednesday urged the terrorised residents not to flee.
“People have fled along with many children who are now living in Marakwet East hills. The situation calls for urgent government intervention,” Tolgos said during a tour of the area.
Some of the deserted schools are Cheptulel Girls, Cheptulel Boys, Apollo, Chesegon, Tirap, Akiriamet, Amarel, Lochakula, Kamulogon, Sapulmoi and Charataka primary schools.
The others are Kamelei A, Kamelei B, Kabero, Kalya, Tenderwa, Kipsitona, Kabusien, Tapach among others.
Meanwhile, a local Kenya National Union of Teachers official has asked tutors to leave for their safety.
“We are telling our teachers that their lives are important than jobs and not to risk their lives. They should not go to school without proper security,” Knut branch secretary Martin Sembelo said.
“We need security personnel in the county to move with maximum speed and deploy more security for learners and teachers,” Sambelo said.
Elgeyo Marakwet county commissioner Ahmed Omar said the GSU officer killed Monday night was in a group of bandits.
“He was not on duty as earlier reported. When the attackers raided Marakwet side, they were repulsed and one of them killed. We discovered later that he was a GSU officer who had teamed up with criminals,” Omar said.
Governor Tolgos lamented that peace had for a long time been elusive along the volatile Elgeyo Marakwet and West Pokot border.
He visited displaced victims at Takar centre. He said Interior CS Fred Matiang'i should visit the region and deploy specialised security officers to save lives.
“The situation is so dire that criminals have moved into learning institutions in West Pokot and flushed out teachers and learners who are not from that area,” the governor said.
“I wonder what else Matiang'i and his team want to happen before they take this matter seriously.”
The governor said the government should have responded as fast as it did when an OCS and a chief were killed in Embu and Tharaka Nithi. The Interior CS also visited Matungu in Western Kenya after a series of killings.
The governor has held several peace meetings in the area accompanied by Marakwet East assistant commissioner Stephen Sangolo and police chief Vincent Kitili.