The government has vowed to stand with police who lawfully use weapons to defend Kenyans.
Interior CS Kithure Kindiki said the government has, as a priority, the mandate to curb insecurity and put criminals behind bars.
"Security officers are instructed to use the firearms they hold to lawfully protect citizens and their property. Armed criminals daring security agencies will be dealt with ruthlessly,” he said on Saturday.
"The government will defend security officers who lawfully use weapons assigned to them to protect the lives and property of our citizens.”
Kindiki highlighted that the three-pronged approach adopted in tackling livestock theft was working.
The approach is part of the Interior Ministry’s initiative to curb and fight banditry and livestock theft in the country.
“Our security officers are directed to not only recover all stolen livestock, but identity, apprehend and prosecute masterminds, financiers and perpetrators of banditry," Kindiki said.
Under the three-pronged approach, in the event of successful livestock theft, Kindiki made it clear that security agencies must recover all the stolen animals and arrest the persons involved in the theft.
"So other than preventing livestock, we must recover the stolen livestock and we also have to produce the suspects behind the crime.”
Kindiki was speaking at Kunene Mixed Day Secondary School in Meru County during a fundraising event.
The CS had earlier instructed security officers to ruthlessly deal with armed criminals so long as they were using their firearms lawfully to protect citizens and their property.
He commended the country’s security officers whom he said have showed courage in the fight against crime where some eventually even lost their lives at the hands of criminals.
The CS emphasised that the days of armed criminals terrorising people with impunity are long gone.
"The government of Kenya under the leadership of President William Ruto will fulfil all its pledges and we are determined to end permanently, the shame of cattle rustling and banditry," Kindiki affirmed.
The CS listed a number of successes in maintaining internal security since he took charge of the country's security.
Among them, he said, was that significant ground has been covered in tracking and neutralising armed criminals who had turned parts of North Rift Valley, Upper Eastern and Coastal regions into their territory where they killed men, women and children and impoverished them economically.
