• Deployment ordered by Interior CS Fred Matiang'i after a security meeting in the area attended by county commissioners,police chiefs.
• Deployed officers from GSU and Anti-Stock Theft Unit.
Image: MATHEWS NDANYI
Two hundred more security officers have been deployed in Kerio Valley following a spate of killing by bandits who killed more than 12 people in two weeks.
Three pupils and a herder were among the latest victims killed in an attack at Tot where they were sprayed with bullets as they fled.
The deployment was ordered by Interior CS Fred Matiang'i after an area security meeting attended by county commissioners and police chiefs.
The total deployment in Baringo, Elgeyo Marakwet and West Pokot was not disclosed. But in March about 200 National Police Reservists were deployedand police camps set up.
GSU officers and those from the Anti-Stock Theft Unit have been deployed.
The three county commissioners held an emergency security meeting in Tot , the epicentre of the latest raids where they planned improved security operations.
Elgeyo Marakwet commissioner John Korir, Baringo's Abdirisak Jaldesa and West Pokot's Apollo Okelo and county police commanders and other security commandant's pledged to restore order.
"The government has deployed extra police officers to man the affected area even as we put in place other security measures to end the violence," Korir said.
The county chiefs said they would also engage communities and leaders to participate in peace and unity efforts.
“Our leaders and communities have the largest role to play in security because the criminals live within them," Korir said.
He dismissed as alarmist the calls by Knut and Kuppet teachers' unions to shut down schools.
Many children have been displaced along with their parents and now live in IDP camps.
More than 700 children, some say 1,000, are out of schools in Kerio Valley due to the banditry and unions have called for closure of schools until safety is assured.
Knut executive secretary in Elgeyo Marakwet John Cheberib said they had directed teachers to withdraw their services and close schools until after the government restores security.
“This is no longer banditry. Criminals are targeting our children and teachers and there is no way we can have our people risk their safety yet the government is not taking action to stop the killings," Cheberi said.
More than 10 civil society groups in the region put pressure on the government to end killings in the valley.
Representatives from the groups led by Rev Samwel Kiptanui said the killings had taken a serious dimension following the targeting of children. He is chairman of the NCCK in Elgeyo Marakwet
“All lives matter, including those in Kerio Valley, and we call upon the government to act with urgency,”Kiptanui said.
The civil society groups said they would send a team to the region to assess the situation.
“We are there because there are so many human rights violations and children and women are the most affected," Kiptani said.
Five of those injured in the latest attack are still receiving treatment at the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret.
Deputy Governor Wesley Rotich and Marakwet East MP Kangogo Bowen called for urgent measures to restore security.
“We need the Kenya Defence Forcessent to Kerio Valley as soon as possible. One hundred lives in three counties i six months is no longer banditry," Rotich said.
"Each day we are burying people either killed on the road or by bandits, we are demanding action from the government,” Rotich said.
(Edited by V. Graham)