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At the beginning of the year, the lives of residents of Lamu were severely disrupted, by attackers who killed people and burnt their homes. The government arrested eight suspects and imposed a dawn to dusk curfew. It also boosted the security forces in the area.

But no sooner had this happened than the attackers staged new raids, killing more people and burning more houses, despite increased security presence and the curfew. The impudence of it is completely unnerving. People fled their homes fearing for their lives. In an election season that is already highly charged, these are very ominous signs.

The Lamu attacks are a mirror image of what happened in Laikipia barely two months ago. Heavily armed attackers wreaked havoc on the residents of Laikipia, killing people, burning houses and stealing livestock. This went on for weeks despite heavy security presence. Who are these bandits?
The audacity with which these attackers are operating shows they have little fear of either retribution or being apprehended.

The tragedy of this whole saga is that the people who are affected are the poor and marginalised, who are desperately trying to eke out a living from their farms. Their one cry heard over and over again is- where is the Government?

It is almost unbelievable that such attacks take place under the nose of a police service, whose antenna is not only up due to the rising insecurity situation, but whose strength on the ground has been beefed up.

There are some burning questions crying for answers. These attackers must be supplied with food, somebody must cook for them. They must be financed and paid through some payment system, they must move around, they must have a hideout to which they retreat. They must communicate by mobile phone.

The people whose lives have been turned upside down can be forgiven for thinking that somebody somewhere, either through complicity or complacency, has refused to do their job.

The government has said it is mapping out hotspots where election-related violence is likely to occur. The government must act on this intelligence. One of the things they must do in these hotspots is to strengthen surveillance and intelligence gathering. These hotspots will require more intrusive and aggressive policing.

The remit of the security system in this endeavor must be pre-emptive- to take out the attackers before they strike. It’s useless to assure people of security when their kith and kin have been killed, their houses burnt and they have had to flee their homes. What is even more worrying is that the first two weeks of this month alone has seen a spate of such attacks.
Attackers killed seven people in Tigania, on the Meru-Isiolo border, just days after the Lamu attacks.

What is equally of concern is that the government hardly ever gets to the root causes of such attacks. Apart from the Laikipia attacks where one leader was held to account, the people who are arrested and paraded before courts are the foot soldiers who are probably just paid bounties for their dirty work.

As long as the sponsors and financiers are not apprehended, and root causes discovered and dealt with, this cycle of violence will endure. The government is failing its people in this regard. It is the only one with the machinery to undertake this task.

All these seemingly unconnected pockets of extreme violence are what grows into a ball of fire, if not stamped out decisively. In an election year, these are ill omens.

Interior Cabinet Secretary (CS) Fred Matiang’i, last month stated that he would not like to go down in history as the CS who presided over the country’s security sector when things went wrong. He was emphatic that he would work round the clock to ensure Kenya remains peaceful and united.
These are lofty and admirable intentions, and the CS is known for his no-nonsense approach to public administration. It shows Matiang’i is fully cognisant of the critical role expected of him at a personal level in this tension-packed year. It’s time to walk the talk!