NAIROBI, Kenya, Jan 25 – Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiangi on Monday said he will declare Kapedo a Special Security Zone in a gazette notice to be published later in the day and also extend the area’s dusk-to-dawn curfew as the government moved to contain rising insecurity in the region.
Matiangi, who spoke after holding high-level talks with United Kingdom Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said the government is committed to eliminating the recurring attacks in the region.
“I am issuing a gazette notice extending curfew in the region and designate it as special operation area and we will maintain the curfew so that we can do all the work there and complete it,” he said.
“We have decided as Government we will not postpone that problem again, we will sort it once and for all. We will sustain the operation in the area until we get all criminals out, we will disarm all people there,” he added.
The CS noted that the attacks are not merely related to cattle rustling but are criminal activities that are sometimes sponsored by local politicians.
“We cant play hide and seek with criminals and we are going to sort the problems once and for all. Everyone knows what the problem is in that part of the country, we will remain there until the problem is sorted once and for all,” the CS added.
He said security operations will remain in place until the threat is fully eliminated.
Matiangi denied knowledge of a humanitarian crisis in the area saying all security teams are solely interested in helping the citizens to get rid of the criminals.
Attacks in Kapedo reignited after a senior General Service Unit officer was shot and killed by suspected bandits in Kapedo, Turkana County, during an ongoing operation to restore calm in the area.
Security officers had been deployed to the region to flush out armed gangs who have been terrorizing the locals in the border area of Baringo and Turkana counties.
Six other people, including an election official, were mysteriously murdered in the area after the killing of the GSU Operations Director. Their bodies were discovered in Arabal sub-location, Mukutani Ward in Baringo South.
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