NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 25 — Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen has called on banditry suspects in the North Rift region to voluntarily surrender to authorities and submit to due legal process, as security agencies intensify efforts to restore peace in the troubled Kerio Valley.
Speaking during the Jukwaa la Usalama grassroots engagement in Elgeyo Marakwet County, Murkomen said those conducting banditry should surrender before the full force of the law is metted on them.
“I’d like to extend an olive branch to all those suspects who are being pursued to take the shortest time possible to present themselves before police officers. That is the safest way they can be processed through a court of law,” he said.
“It is important for them to surrender as early as possible because the current engagement may lead to loss of lives.”
Murkomen revealed that security agencies have credible intelligence on the whereabouts of key suspects and are conducting operations around the clock to apprehend them.
His remarks come at a time of heightened tension in the Kerio Valley, a region long plagued by cycles of deadly violence linked to cattle rustling, land disputes, and inter-community rivalry.
The expansive valley, which cuts across Elgeyo Marakwet, Baringo, and West Pokot counties, has become a hotspot for armed attacks and retaliatory killings, disrupting lives and development.
In one of the most recent tragedies, Catholic priest Father Aloice Mukolwe was shot and killed while returning from a peace-building mission in June, an incident that drew national outrage and renewed calls for lasting solutions to insecurity in the area.
While the government has deployed National Police Reservists (NPRs) and launched disarmament operations in the past, sporadic attacks persist.
