Fred Matiang'i Says It Will Take 2 Years to End Banditry in North Rift

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Fred Matiang'i Says It Will Take 2 Years to End Banditry in North Rift

Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang'i has urged Kenyans to exercise patience as he consolidates his security teams with an aim of crashing the wave of insecurity that has been recurrent in the North Rift. 

Matiang'i has been under increasing pressure to quash the insecurity in North Rift once and for all.

Changing security tactics

Appearing before the National Assembly committee on security on Tuesday, April 5, the CS said the government had been forced to rethink its strategy to handle the matter. 

He said that resolving the resource scarcity and the root of the communal conflict could take up to two years.

The CS stated he went to the council to seek the list of the various Pokot warriors, saying the group has outlawed organisations like the MRC.

When they reviewed the matter, he said the council could not decide since it involved Kenyans. 

"These people have taken cattle wrestling and livestock raids too far. So I want to call on patience as the government worked to end the killings and displacement," Matiang'i said.

"We have done enough. The character of the conflict we were dealing with in Mt Elgon was diffrent from the character that we are dealing with in North Rift. What we are dealing with now is a hardcore driven crime," he added. 

According to Matiang'i, several factors were impeding efforts to end the communal conflicts, most critically the proliferation of small arms.

" The truth of the matters is that until there will be a sustainable peace in Somalia, South Sudan, that is when these places will have peace. We have tried very hard to police this borders," the CS said.

He also called on the local leaders to proactively address the underlying issue and not leave it to the national government. 

Matiang'i reassured that the government deployed soldiers to safeguard the affected areas maintaining that bringing back peace to North Rift a marathon, not a sprint 

" Close to about 25% of our police and resources in our country are spent virtually on that belt of our country. What will help in this place is not more soldiers or more police posts or more equipment, but it is administering the place more responsibly. We will win this war, not in a day or week, but I think we will be done within the next one year or two," he said. 

Source: Tuko News





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