Find lasting answer to banditry menace

The silence by the police on recent revelations by former Rift Valley Regional Commissioner and current Trans Nzoia Governor George Natembeya over how the fight against banditry can be improved is baffling. Natembeya, who worked in the volatile region for two and half years, narrated the challenges faced by local administrators and police officers in their attempts to deal with banditry.

He gave hints of how the problem can be resolved. Government officials and police officers posted to insecurity-prone areas are, for instance, often left to their own devices and endure difficult conditions without sufficient support from their superiors. Despite having to make do with measly pay and without proper equipment and facilitation, local administrators and police are expected to successfully fight bandits who have sophisticated weapons.

Coming at time when the government has launched a disarmament operation in the region, Natembeya’s revelations deserve an attention if the government is to make headway in its campaign to pacify the region.

This is the time to formulate a long-term strategy to deal with cattle rustling and insecurity in the North Rift and a lasting solution will require a multi-pronged approach that addresses challenges arising from poverty, cultural practices and manipulation by politicians.

In the past, the government has launched operations in the region only whenever bandits kill police officers. This approach is not sustainable. There is need to have in place a plan of what will happen once peace and security are restored.

Such a massive disarmament operation as being undertaken now was last launched in 2021 after the killing of 10 people in Kapedo, Turkana East. Unfortunately, only 80 guns had been seized out of the more than 5,000 believed to have been in wrong hands. There were no records of criminals arrested during the disarmament.

Things must be done differently if the government is to have a long-lasting impact and solution that will be both acceptable to the people and sustainable. For instance, in the absence of long-term, effective and accessible State security and other government services such as education and healthcare in the troubled areas, small arms will always be seen as a guarantor of security.

This is a reality the government ought to be alive to. It must also come up with a Marshal Plan that should involve reaching out to the protagonists.