Nandi leaders want the entire county security team overhauled to end police killings, other deaths and at least one ritual murder.
At least six people have been killed by police or unknown people in the past month alone, Senator Samson Cherargei claimed.
He was joined by other leaders at a press conference at Parliament Buildings on Monday.
The leaders also called for a total review of national government administration officers, saying they have not curbed insecurity.
“At this rate of killings, we are headed to a serious security and socio-economic crisis as families entirely depend on the victims,” Cherargei said.
On Sunday, they claimed, Zachayo Kipkinyor from Tirikwo village in Aladai constituency was mysteriously killed by unknown assailants
“We don’t know whether these people are being killed for rituals. Kipkinyor was beheaded and his private parts chopped off,” Cherargei said.
The killing came barely a month after three people from Lessos – Cobbler Lazarus Tirop, Cornelius Kipkogei and Timothy Kipyeyo - were killed during a melee with police.
Tirop was confronted by two police officers and allegedly shot dead after he reportedly protested the harassment of a boda boda operator for not wearing a mask.
An officer reportedly demanded a Sh50 bribe from the boda boda rider.
His death sparked a riot and villagers stormed the Lessos police station and torched the house of the OCS.
The protest led to the deaths of two more people.
In the last month, Kevin Kipchumba and Boniface Kiprotich, both from Tobowa village in Mosop constituency, were mysteriously murdered.
Lawmakers called on Interior CS Fred Matiang’i, Police IG Hillary Mutyambai, Ipoa and security personnel in the county to investigate the cases and arrest the perpetrators in 48 hours.
“Further, we call upon the government to compensate the families immediately since they depended solely on the killed persons,” they said in a statement.
The Senate already has launched a probe into the killings following a petition by Senator Cherargei.
Last week, he demanded to know what led to the killings of innocent civilians who were supposed to be protected by the police.
Speaker Kenneth Lusaka directed the security committee to summon top security personnel, including Mutyambai, to explain the deaths.
“The committee should explain if the policy on community policing is still in operation and if so why police failed to embrace it, thus causing serious disharmony between the police and the community in Lessos,” Cherargei said.
He demanded to know what action the police and the Ministry of the Interior have taken against the officers responsible.
The senator requested the Interior ministry and the IG to provide the full list of officers who were transferred, as announced by Deputy IG Edward Mbugua who visited the station soon after the Lessos killings.
(Edited by V. Graham)
