NAIROBI, Kenya Jun 23 – Inspector General of Police David Kimaiyo has summoned all elected leaders from Mandera and Wajir Counties to record statements at the CID headquarters, over attacks in the region that have left 24 people dead in the past two days.
The leaders summoned to the CID headquarters include Governors, Senators, MPs and Woman Representatives in addition to County ward representatives who have been ordered to report to the County headquarters.
Kimaiyo ordered the politicians to report to the respective CID agencies on Monday adding that those found culpable would be arrested.
“We have realised that the attacks and killings are just sporadic; no robbery with violence or cases of cattle rustling are reported,” said the Inspector-General of Police.
“Our intelligence gathering reports that it is politically instigated and some of these groups receive funding from their respective leaders fueling this violence.”
And at a press briefing held on Sunday evening, the North Eastern leaders vowed to heed the summons by the Inspector General so as to record their own version of events.
Led by Garissa Senator Yussuf Haji, Garissa Township Member of Parliament Aden Duale and Eastleigh Business District Association Vice Chairman Hussein Mohammed the leaders said that they will record their statements at the CID on Monday morning, as ordered.
“I think it is quite in order for the leaders to go and give their account. But we don’t have any evidence to suggest that it is Members of Parliament who are financing and fueling it,” he said.
Haji and Duale at the same time accused Kimaiyo of knee-jerk reactions to the situation arguing that he should have been on the ground with his officers assessing the situation and restoring order.
Duale particularly accused the IG of using the summons as a PR gimmick while Haji noted that the summons had come a tad too late.
“His mandate is not only to record statements. He should have been where 15 people were killed this morning and not at a press conference in Nairobi,” retorted Duale.
“Maybe he will come and tell us what he knows about the conflict after he has grilled us,” quipped Haji.
The latest attack occurred on Sunday afternoon when a rocket propelled grenade was fired at an IDP camp in Banisa area killing 15 people. Five other people were killed on Saturday following inter clan clashes.
Kimaiyo told journalists that he had reason to believe that Sunday’s attack was linked to inter-clan fighting between the Garre and Degodia communities.
According to police, the grenade was fired at a camp hosting internally displaced families from one of the warring communities, killing 10 people on the spot.
Nine people were killed on Friday in two separate incidents linked to the Garre-Degodia violence; four were killed in Mandera County while five were killed in Wajir County in what police said was a revenge attack.
The North Eastern leaders also announced that communities which would start another attack beginning Sunday midnight, would be fined Sh10 million.
Haji explained that a committee would be set up to collect the hefty fine that would be used to provide humanitarian assistance to the injured.
The leaders also called for the redeployment of all law enforcers from the Garre and Degodia communities from the region.