• Many heads of cattle were driven away as the heavily armed bandits attacked the four herders who were taking care of their animals a few kilometres from Tot center
•Elgeyo Marakwetcounty Police Commander Patrick Lumumba said security teams had been repulsing many attacks in the region
Four more people were shot dead on Saturday at Kapkobil in Kerio Valley in banditry attacks despite ongoing peace efforts.
The latest attacks were in Elgeyo Marakwet villages where bandits drove away cattle.
It appears a recent traditional ceremony to to curse and eliminate banditry has not been effective.
The four victims were herding cattle a few kilometres from Tot centre in Marakwet East constituency when they were attacked by heavily armed bandits.
Elgeyo Marakwet county police commander Patrick Lumumba said the attackers are believed to have crossed over from Tiaty in neighbouring Baringo county.
“We are working with our counterparts in Baringo to arrest those involved and to return the animals stolen. We have sent additional security teams to affected areas,” Lumumba said.
Tension remained high in Tot area as hundreds of villagers. especially women and children, moved away from homes fearing more attacks.
Marakwet East MP Kangogo Bowen and Senator Kipchumba Murkomen angrily condemned the attack and accused the government of neglecting the area.
“We want the same force and zeal they applied in Laikipia to be done here. We are tired of daily killing of our people," Bowen said.
Murkomen has demanded the government should deploy National Police Reservists to the region, as it has done in Laikipia.
“The police are unable to deal with this situation and the time has come for communities to protect themselves with the help of reservists,” said Murkomen.
Leaders have held several meetings in the area to have communities adopt but armed bandits have been staging frequent raids and hiding in remote areas of Tiaty.
So far, more than 60 people, including children and women, have been killed this year.
Poverty and underdevelopment have been blamed for increased attacks and the government, working with donors, has rolled out several programmes to open up the marginalised region.
In one initiative, the government and donors will invest Sh5.6 billion in tarmacking a major road in Kerio Valley linking three counties, including Elgeyo Marakwet, West Pokot and Baringo, that are affected by banditry attacks.
Survey on the road project has already started and chairman of the Kenya National Highways AuthorityWangai Ndirangu said it would run between Tot-Chesegon-Kopasi areas.
A peace monument and centre will be put up at Tot centre as part of the project so communities can use it to chart peace and unity in the troubled region where many people have been killed or maimed by bandits
Elgeyo Marakwet Governor Alex Tolgos, county commissioner Dr Omar Ahmed and Senator Murkomen said the road would help open up the region and end banditry.
The road will be constructed by China Railway sSeventh Group in consortium with Three N international Limited.
Speaking during a public participation and a sensitisation session at Chesongoch, Ndirangu said the torturous Kilangata-Chesongoch road, which has been a nightmare to lorry drivers who ferry mangoes to Eldoret, will also be tarmacked.
“We expect the actual construction to begin in two months' time. Other than the main road, we will also do Kilangata-Chesongoch which is a 16km stretch and other access roads,” he said.
Tolgos and the leaders who addressed residents in Kerio Valley called for calm as county governments make efforts to end the insecurity.
The counties in the region have offered to help pay police reservists if they are hired by the state.
A section of North Rift leaders also met on Eldoret and sought divine intervention to help end banditry in Kerio Valley.
They say human intervention has been useful but can not succeed without the hand of God.
“God is the maker of this world, and even Kerio Valley. We beseech him to intervene and help end banditry so our people can live in peace,” Uasin Gishu Deputy Governor Daniel Chemno said.
He spoke at a prayer breakfast hosted by Christ Is The Answer Ministries that is part of multi-sectoral approach of promoting peace and cohesion in Kerio Valley following the recent violence.
“We ask the churches to establish more mission centres where they can impart education and evangelism to the people of Kerio Valley,” Chemno said at a the meeting co-hosted by the North Rift Economic Bloc, which brings together eight counties in the region.
Before the NPRs programme was terminated, more than 3,000 reservists had been deployed in the area and were to be paid about Sh5,000 each monthly after training and being given uniforms. They were reporting to Officers Commanding Police station in the region.
Tolgos and his counterparts John Lonyangapuo of West Pokot and Stanley Kiptis of Baringo are proposing the same programme be revived.
(Edited by John Muchangi)