Interior CS Kithure Kindiki has said that come next year, 2024, the government will completely eradicate livestock theft.
Kindiki said 2023 was the year of flipping the war on livestock rustlers and bandits.
He was speaking on Friday in Igembe North Constituency during the passing out ceremony of 140 police reservists.
"From next week, the government will commence an operation in parts of the Eastern Region as an extension to the ongoing Operation Maliza Uhalifu in North Rift Valley Counties," he said.
The CS said in the last 50 years, 14 Counties have been plagued with banditry and livestock rustling.
This he said has hampered development and economic growth.
"As promised by President William Ruto, the challenge of banditry will be eradicated by the Kenya Kwanza Administration," the CS said.
Kindiki said the government has mounted and upscaled a vicious war on bandits, livestock rustlers and other armed criminals in the North Rift Valley Region and parts of the Eastern Region in just a year.
He said the move has resulted in a 70 per cent reduction in cases of livestock theft.
CS Kindiki further congratulated the recruited police reservists.
"We congratulate the 140 National Police Reservists (NPR) who have been recruited, trained and are ready for immediate deployment, to supplement the multi-agency security officers in combating perpetrators of banditry, livestock theft and other criminal activities," he said.
Also present during the ceremony was the Eastern Regional Commissioner Paul Rotich, Meru County and Sub-Counties Security Teams, MPs Julius Taitumu and Dan Kiili and Meru County Assembly members.
On December 11, lawmakers acceded to calls by the national and key county governments to classify banditry as an act of terrorism.
The National Assembly Security Committee announced it would recommend changes to the anti-terrorism law to include banditry.
Security committee chairman MP Gabriel Tongoyo (Narok West) said this during a tour of the banditry-prone counties in the North Rift.
“We are in the process of compiling our report after today’s visit. We have so far visited the six counties prone to banditry and witnessed first-hand the effects of the decades-long menace.”
