• The government intensified a security operation in the six counties affected by banditry where more than 60 illegal guns have so far been recovered.
According to an Eldoret-based Harbingers Bible and Missionary Training Institute, they have enrolled former warriors who ditched banditry and chose to reform.
Image: MATHEWS NDANYI
Religious groups are giving theological training to some reformed Kerio Valley warriors so they use the Bible and help to transform others still rustling cattle and causing violence.
Their initiative comes as the government intensifies a security operation in the six counties affected by banditry where more than 60 illegal guns have been recovered.
Eldoret-based Harbingers Bible and Missionary Training Institute has enrolled some of the youths who were former warriors but gave up banditry.
Bishop Haron Wambia, the director of the institute, says they want to use religious activities to help transform communities affected by banditry.
“We are targeting reformed warriors from the disturbed counties for theological studies sothey become ambassadors of peace upon their graduation,” Wambia said.
He said the trained youth will to help spread the gospel through the churches that the organisation and others have constructed in far-flung areas.
“The courses we offer are at various levels and we have those students who are undertaking certificate and diploma theological courses at our institute. We will later post them to the churches so that they help to evangelise communities,” Wambia said.
That doesn't make them pastors.
He said churches had a critical role to play to bolster peace and unity among Kenyans and more so among communities in the region that has not known peace for decades because of banditry.
Amos Loroch 24, a resident of Tiaty constituency in Baringo, which has been in the news for violence, is enrolled at the institute in Eldoret.
He says he will use the knowledge acquired at the institute to reach out to his peers still engaged in vicious cattle rustling and convince them to adopt peace instead.
“It is unfortunate the majority of my Pokot community in far-flung interior parts of West Pokot and Tiaty do not know there exists God. I want to go out there are spread to the word of GodTrainee Isaac Chekopen
“We all need peace and through this training I have learned the need to seek forgiveness and work for the peace so all our families can live in harmony,”Loroch told reporters.
He said his area has never known peace since he was born, saying running battles between the security personnel and heavily armed bandits have been their way of life. The situation caused him to drop out of school.
Another trainee, Isaac Chekopen, 28, vowed to spread the gospel in areas where the word of God has never reached the community. He wants to enable his peers toto abandon the gun and show the way to peace and development.
“It is unfortunate the majority of my Pokot community in far-flung interior parts of West Pokot and Tiaty do not know that there exists God. I want to go out there are spread to the word of God,” he said.
The institute along with other religious groups aim to train more than 500 youth for evangelism missions.
Two weeks since KDF and other security teams arrived in the region to start the security operation, Rift Valley regional commissioner Abdi Mohammed says they are making good progress in recovery of illegal arms.
“Those who still have illegal guns must surrender them to security officers before we act,” Mohammed said.
(Edited by V.Graham)