Police laxity is to blame for killings in Kapedo, Turkana Governor Josphat Nanok has said, and demanded that police do their work properly.
Two police reservists were shot dead and two others injured after suspected Pokot bandits attacked Kapedo Catholic church on Sunday.
Area chief Mercy Asmit said the police reservists had been hired to provide security during a mass at the church.
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Nanok noted on Tuesday that security organs have to work as required for the situation to improve.
"We want to know from the County Commissioner, Police Commander and NIS what you do for the President here if the people you have been mandated to secure cannot move freely as required by the Constitution," he said.
"For a week now all these heads have not been in the county," he added at Lodwar county headquarters where he addressed demonstrators.
The Governor noted that three students were butchered by suspected Pokot bandits yet no action has been taken.
The driver of the vehicle the Kapedo High School
students had been travelling in was also killed.
The institution
was closed indefinitely as a result.
Nanok criticised the area's security chiefs further, saying they have left residents at the mercy of bandits.
He asked why police did not pursue attackers who ambushed travellers
on Kapedo-Marigat road and why they have not looked into frequent attacks at Kapedo centre.
“I visited Kapedo and Lomelo [on Monday]. The insecurity has left residents living as prisoners of terrorists."
At Kapedo Hospital, the county boss said, only one health official was on duty as the rest were in Marigat and could not travel.
Nanok added that shops were empty as traders could not transport their goods from Marigat.
"Fifteen university and college students are in Kapedo and cannot go back to school. I asked police why they couldn’t help them travel,” he said.
On the Turkana-Baringo boundary conflict, Nanok asked the national government to state clearly how far each territory stretches.
He said he will
lead a delegation of leaders from Turkana to a meeting with President Uhuru Kenyatta and called for calm as solutions are sought.
Last week, the Governor accused the Interior ministry of neglecting Kapedo as rampant killings turn to "genocide".
The situation worsens by day, he noted in a letter to Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang'i and
Inspector General of Police Joseph Boinnet.
"The government is doing very little to restore calm,"
he said.
“Genocide is developing in Kapedo yet nobody in national security seems to care. No excuse will explain this inefficiency and neglect on your part as a security organ."
Nanok further noted that the killings have been taking place since 2014 and that
road transport has been cut, preventing aid.
“Security organs must publicly admit that they have been defeated by a well-equipped terror group that seems not to fear anybody," he said.