Rift Valley regional commissioner George Natembeya on Tuesday ordered parents who had withdrawn their children from school in parts of Laikipia citing insecurity to take them back immediately.
He said there was no cause for alarm.
Natembeya warned that severe action would be taken on any parent with a schoolchild yet to report back to school. He said the government security agencies had been beefed up in the area, hence no need for children to stay at home.
Speaking after he led a high-powered security delegation in touring the affected areas of Ol Moran and Githiga wards, Natembeya attributed the panic by the parents to incitement by local politicians whom he also vowed to deal with ruthlessly.
"Politicians are going around these areas telling parents to withdraw children from learning institutions and have them stay at home, yet learning continues in other institutions.
"The government will not allow that to happen, we shall have to deal with them,” the administrator said when he toured Wangwaci Primary School and Kabati Secondary in Ol Moran.
On Monday, Githiga MCA Peter Thomi was arrested and detained for several hours before being set free after he was allegedly found addressing residents of his ward.
His Ol Moran counterpart George Karuiru is also being sought by authorities to record a statement following claims that he had been inciting residents to boycott taking their children to school.
The two ward representatives are said to have called on residents to withdraw their children from local schools due to rising insecurity and calling on the government to arm the national police reservists (NPRs) in the area in order to ward off attacks from suspected cattle rustlers.
Natembeya, however, said that the government had adopted a new approach in the deployment of NPRs, saying they needed to be trained first before being deployed in barracks for easier command.
“We do not want a situation where the NPRs get used by politicians to harass opponents, especially at such a time we are approaching an election.
"The government has many other security personnel formations who can be swiftly sent to any part of the country facing security challenges,” Natembeya said.
Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i on a visit last week to the county warned illegal herders from neighbouring counties who had invaded Laikipia farms and conservancies to leave the area within seven days, failing which they would be injected by security personnel.
“What we are planning to do in the next seven days is a crack operation. We will be merciless and very firm, that’s why we have given them the seven days to leave voluntarily if you know you are here illegally, failure to which we shall be forced to do what the government is supposed to do,” Matiang’i said.
Natembeya said 80 per cent of the invading pastoralists had voluntarily left the area following the government ultimatum but added that an ongoing operation to flush out the few who haven’t left was underway, especially at the expansive Laikipia Nature Conservancy.
Edited by Henry Makori
