The ongoing disarmament of warring communities in Northern Kenya is welcome.
Insecurity in the region has led to deaths, displacement, closure of schools and general lack of development (see page 6).
Hundreds of arms are in the wrong hands and this should be recovered, whether through amnesty or by force.
Estimates by Human Rights Watch put the number of illegal weapons in Kenya as of 2017 at just over 700,000. These mainly enter the country through the porous borders with strife-torn neighbours.
Therefore, alongside the mop-up, there must be increased border surveillance to ensure there is no rearmament.
Pasture wars, especially during dry seasons, fuel cross-border banditry. The authorities must therefore explore long-term solutions for water provision.
Markets for stolen animals must be closed to kill the demand for stolen animals by closely monitoring the source of all the animals slaughtered in major towns.
The government must equally build roads in these areas to ease security operations and open up the closed regions for development.
County governments must step in and drive development in some of the remote areas to supplement national government interventions.
Aggressive drives to improve school attendance and retention must be conducted to wean the youth off outdated traditions.
Equally engage them in sporting activities to channel the extra energy to positive things.
Peace restoration in Northern Kenya must be holistic and disarmament is just but one of the solutions.
Quote of the Day: “I prayed for freedom for twenty years, but received no answer until I prayed with my legs.”
Frederick Douglass
The African-American abolitionist, lecturer and editor who was also an escaped slave, died on February 20, 1895
