•Joint police and KDF operation enters its first month today.
•Government says not relenting in war against marauding terrorists.
Image: MOINTA
The government has ordered the evacuation of residents of 27 spots believed to be bandits’ hideouts by end of Monday, further hinting at the start of a forced disarmament to rid the North Rift of illegal guns.
A tough talking Interior CS Kithure Kindiki issued the order on Sunday in a statement laced with undertones that the government could be gearing up to take the month-long operation a notch higher.
Kindiki said the evacuation order followed after the government determined that armed criminals were hiding at the bottom of gorges, escarpments, caves, ravines, hills and forests.
“The government has decided to take this operation a notch higher, to a second and crucial phase. This phase requires new measures, even as the previous measures remain in force,” he said.
Kindiki said the new measures are meant to inject new impetus and push the operation to a new level.
“The situation at hand being a national emergency, these measures must inflict maximum pain on criminals notwithstanding the inconveniences on the rest of us,” he explained.
In a statement from Samburu, the CS said intelligence reports have shown there were “hundreds of heavily armed bandits holed up in the difficult-terrain, remote and inaccessible areas.”
“We are taking this war to their hideouts by land and air, with all our weight and might and with all the strength that God has given us to effectively defeat this lamentable catalog of crimes against humanity,” Kindiki said.
This was even as the CS stated that the government knows those who are funding banditry including “who they are, where they are, and how they are operating”.
As such, residents of Korkoron Hills, Tandare Valley and Silale gorges in Baringo county have to find an alternative home – at least until after the operation ends.
Also affected would be residents of Mukogodo Forest, Kamwenje, Warero and Ndonyoriwo; Lekuruki Hills, Losos and Kiape Caves and Sieku Valley in Laikipia county.
Ltungai Conservancy, Longewan, Nasuur, Lochokia and Lekadaar escarpments; Lolmolok caves, Pura Valley, Malaso Escarpment and Suguta Valley in Samburu county are also a no-go zone.
Turkana residents have also been declared persona non grata at Kapelbok, Nakwamoru, Lebokat, Ombollion, Nadome and Kamur caves and at the Turkwell Escarpment at the interface of West Pokot.
“The above spaces are hereby declared scenes of crime and any person found therein from Monday, March 13, will be treated as a suspect of armed banditry, or as a suspect of aiding and abetting banditry, or an accessory after the fact,” Kindiki said.
The Star has established the directive is to mitigate a situation where innocent people could be caught up in the fight.
The state believes there are thousands of guns, ammunition, and other weapons in the hands of criminals in these hideouts.
“In the days and months ahead, we shall collect every illegal gun, every weapon in the hands of criminals, whether by voluntary surrender or by force,” the CS said.
“Everyone must get out,” Kindiki added, indicating the criminals are using innocents – including their relatives, as human shields in the event of engagement with security agencies.
The government has also banned low-altitude planes from flying over the area. Only aircraft taking part in the ongoing security operation would be allowed.
Kindiki revealed that the security team has through heightened intelligence gathering, zeroed in on those funding the bandits.
“We have identified a handful of senior commanders in charge of the bandit network as well as their spiritual leaders, political patrons and commercial beneficiaries,” he said.
President William Ruto on Friday ordered that the war on bandits and their networks be scaled up, even as the affected residents piled pressure for results.
Kindiki said that following the directive, the security apparatus is under firm instructions to “neutralise every bandit who defies the government.”
“We shall never surrender our country to criminals. We shall do it for God and country and for the honour and pride of the people of Kenya.”
“We shall flush them out from their hideouts; venture and extract them from any forest, cave, gorge, ravine or escarpment within the soil of the Republic of Kenya,” the Interior CS added.
He said the next phase of the operation is informed by a study which has singled out the bandits’ lifeblood.
“This vice has been supported all along by a toxic mix of bad terrain, weapon supply and banditry leadership.”
In the long term, the state says it’d open schools and public facilities overrun by bandits.
“The government will ensure every child returns to school uninterrupted,” Kindiki said.
Last week, cattle thieves killed nearly a dozen civilians in Samburu and another six in Elgeyo Marakwet.