•Police said their bodies were found in Sere Olipi area
•The Samburu West MP pointed out that scores of others have been left with life-threatening injuries as she questioned the government's seriousness in fighting insecurity in the region.
Image: THE STAR
Tension mounted in a village in Samburu County on Friday evening after gunmen believed to be bandits shot and killed two people in a botched raid.
The deceased include a woman aged 40 and a 20-year-old man.
Police reported that the bodies of two individuals were discovered in the Sere Olipi area, several hours after they were ambushed and fatally shot by unidentified gunmen who fled the scene.
This incident marks the most recent occurrence of such violence in the area, prompting protests from locals who are demanding measures to curb this deadly trend.
According to police, community members alerted them about the bodies lying by the roadside.
A police team subsequently visited the site and recovered the bodies.
The woman had suffered bullet wounds in the abdomen, while the man had wounds in the chest, hip, and leg.
The bodies were moved to the mortuary amid fears of more attacks or retaliation.
It comes days after Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki visited the area in efforts to boost ongoing operations against bandits attacking and killing locals for animals.
The area is among those under siege from gunmen who are on an attack mode hence affecting developments at large.
Local leaders said in the week at least 74 people have been killed in separate attacks by bandits in North Rift area in the past months.
This has also led to the displacement of more than 2,500 people hence affecting development activities, a group of legislators said on Wednesday, March 13.
The group of Members of Parliament made the revelations when they appeared before the National Assembly Committee of Cohesion.
The MPs told the committee atleast 74 people have lost their lives in the hands of the bandits despite the heavy presence of security apparatus in the region.
"We have buried 74 people including an elected Member of the County Assembly who were killed by the bandits," said Naisula Lessuda, the Samburu West MP.
She pointed out that schools in the area have closed because of cases of insecurity.
The Samburu West MP pointed out that scores of others have been left with life-threatening injuries as she questioned the government's seriousness in fighting insecurity in the region.
Samburu North MP Letipita Eli told the Committee that 2,500 people have been displaced following unending attacks by bandits.
"Victims who were displaced are suffering and my people are living in fear," he added.
The MPs from banditry-prone areas in the Rift Valley region also faulted the government's approach to taming the vice, saying the approach may not succeed as is it outdated.
They also lamented they are not being involved in the meetings and tours by senior security personnel.
The government's approach includes arrest and summoning of elected leaders to record statements over the banditry attacks with MPs terming the move as intimidating.
CS Kindiki has been leading the operations in the area vowing to end the menace.
Kindiki said cattle rustling in Northern Kenya has over the years become an organised criminal enterprise responsible for deaths, poverty and displacement.
“Its impacts are severe. It deprives pastoral communities of their economic mainstay and aggravates the conditions of poverty in the rangelands, fuelling communal grievances and revenge attacks,” he said.
To dismantle the infrastructure of cattle rustlers and facilitators Kindiki said, the government is sustaining the war on banditry and its perpetrators, enablers, benefactors and beneficiaries by making banditry a painful venture, ensuring recovery of stolen livestock and rewarding facilitators of recoveries.