Government to set up two new security camps in Laikipia to tame banditry - CS Murkomen

Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen has a word with IG Douglas Kanja in Nanyuki, Laikipia County on July 31, 2025/COURTESY

The government is intensifying its security operations in Laikipia County with plans to establish two additional camps aimed at flushing out bandits hiding in Mukogodo Forest.

Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen said the two camps will be established at Seeki and Kajicho areas and that the process is at its final stages.

Speaking during the ongoing Jukwaa La Usalama engagement in Nanyuki, Laikipia County, Murkomen explained that the establishment of the camps are part of a broader plan by the government to tackle the threat posed by cattle rustling and banditry attacks.

This, he said, includes the opening up of roads and other infrastructural projects.

“The terrain of Samburu East is inaccessible. One of the solutions is to work on the infrastructure and as I said, the Ministry of Roads is trying to allocate resources, and we would like to see that area is more accessible for security operations,” Murkomen said.

“We established the second command centres for the Operation Maliza Ualifu in Kirimon, which is in this county, the process of establishing is almost complete, the construction of the camp and so forth,” he said.

“We hope that as a result of the same, we will be able to upscale our operations in that part because that is where the disease is now located,” he said.

“We also have the request for a formed armed unit in the parts of Seki and Kajicho, and I have told the Inspector General of Police (IGP) that in the next two months those two camps must be established,” he added.

The Cabinet Secretary maintained that the ongoing Operation Maliza Uhalifu was bearing fruits, heaping praise on security officers.

“We are making good progress,” he said.

He said that banditry attacks remain the biggest source of insecurity for communities in Laikipia and other counties bordering it.

“I am happy to engage today in Laikipia, the security team has already briefed me that the biggest challenge in Laikipia as far as security is concerned is banditry,” he stated.

He cited Mukogodo Forest and areas between Laikipia and Samburu East as the most problematic, adding that a multi-agency security team comprising of Police Reservists, the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF), and the Kenya Forest Service (KFS) had been deployed there.

"We all know that the people of Samburu insisted that the whole East remain a big challenge, and the reason why Samburu East remains vast and the biggest perpetrator of banditry is because it is inaccessible."

Two days ago, bandits attacked the National Police Reservists (NPR) camp, killing one officer in the process and injuring four others.

Murkomen said nothing was stolen during the attack saying that their intention was to frustrate the government’s efforts to restore normalcy in the area.

As you know, two days ago the camp that had been established in Seki area was attacked by bandits who know that as a result of establishing that NPR camp, it was going to block them from accessing homesteads and ranches—private and commercial ones that are owned by communities and individuals, he said.

Laikipia is the 23rd county to host the Jukwaa la Usalama, an engagement between government officers and members of the public in the grassroots.