NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 8-Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiangi on Wednesday said the government will help in resettling displaced residents after recent attacks in Laikipia.
Matiangi said this will happen even as the government boosts security in the region in a bid to restore peace following weeks of raids by cattle rustlers in what is blamed on incitement from local leaders.
On Monday, the National Security Council (NSC) declared Laikipia a disturbed region and a security operation area, and declared a dusk to dawn curfew in the troubled Laikipia Nature Conservancy to facilitate a security operation to flush out bandits.
The ongoing clashes have left 8 dead people dead, among them three police officers, and displacement of many people.
“The government will assist displaced residents resettle after recent attacks in Laikipia even as we ramp up security and other measures to restore calm and peaceful coexistence among communities in the region,” Matiangi said.
Earlier on, Rift Valley Regional Commissioner George Natembeya said what’s being witnessed in Laikipia is a well-coordinated conflict, and accused unnamed leaders of fanning the conflict.
Already two leaders Tiaty Member of Parliament William Kamket and former Laikipia North MP Mathew Lempurkel have been arrested in connection with the clashes but they were yet to be charged.
Natembeya also blamed the porous borders in the neighbouring countries of Ethiopia, Sudan, Uganda and Somalia that make it easy for bandits to acquire weapons, hence escalating the violence.
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