Kindiki: How leaders can help in war against banditry

Interior and National Administration CS Kithure Kindiki on Thursday called on leaders from the National Assembly to utilise their Constituency Development Funds( CDF) to set up infrastructure for administrative units.

This, he said, will allow the deployment of more security officers to address key issues of development.

"By establishing infrastructure for administrative units, we will send in more security officers and people can access government services easily," he said.

The CS was speaking in Lodwar during a consultative meeting with Turkana leaders.

With the set up of administrative units, Kindiki said whenever there are security issues, the officers stationed at the units will be able to respond promptly.

"The political leaders have a stake in the war against banditry. They must help us deal with insecurity, by rallying their constituents to abandon acts of crime like livestock rustling and coexist peacefully," he added.

Going further, the CS urged stakeholders to work together to isolate the criminals.

By doing so, Kindiki said Kenyans will win the war against banditry and terrorism urging the stakeholders to stop sympathising with criminals or to be their enablers.

"We will engage in peace-building structures and embark on necessary interventions, through stakeholder engagement. But we must first ruthlessly deal with the armed criminals. Otherwise, we will be encouraging impunity," he added.

In the war against banditry, the Interior boss said that the government was still behind in addressing the issue but positive steps have been taken.

Kindiki stated that recent additional modern equipment and weapons having been deployed to the hotspots of banditry, terrorism and other armed crimes, and there will be an improvement in security.

 "We are not yet there in the banditry war but we are getting there.  We will continue to use lawful force against these crooks because that is the only language they understand," he added.

To address security matters in, Kindiki announced the recruitment of an additional 460  National Police Reservists (NPRs) in Turkana County to supplement security officers in the frontline to pursue bandits.

He also stated that 5600 stolen livestock have been recovered in the last month in Turkana, instructing the County Security Teams to recover the livestock in full