The government will establish a new operations base in Laikipia to combat issues of banditry in the county as well as Samburu, Isiolo, and Meru counties.
Speaking during the celebrations of the eighth anniversary of the AIC Mount Kenya Area Council at AIC Meru town Church, Interior and National Administration Cabinet Secretary (CS) Kipchumba Murkomen said this will be the second from the one in Keiyo Valley, which was also set up to fight the same menace. "We had a security meeting with security officers from these regions and we agreed that we will divide the Baringo base into two where one group will be left there and the second one will head to Laikipia at Kilimon to deal with banditry cases, especially in Samburu East where they have been rampant," said Murkomen.
The CS said the issue of bandits in Samburu East was fuelled by the presence of a forest where criminals and the stolen cattle hide. "The President has already authorised the deployment of Kenya Defence Force officers to the forest and they have been given resources to open up roads in the area and later our police officers will flush out all these criminals," said Murkomen.
He added, "We want to have all the criminals in this forest and all the pastoralist areas, including parts of the upper Eastern and Kerio Valley, flushed out to make sure we eliminate issues of cattle rustling because we want a progressive country." He said they will apply technology in the operations to spot where the criminals' hideouts are and later take the necessary action. "We will make sure we deal with banditry using modern technology and I assure the country that we are up to the task; we have the ability, know-how, and human resources to make sure that this problem is sorted out," said Murkomen.
