Police blamed for missing residents amid operation

Four people have gone missing following a security operation along the Isiolo-Laikipia border, local leaders said yesterday.

About 200 regular and Administration Police officers from Isiolo, Laikipia and Meru were deployed to Kipsing last week to hunt down bandits and recover stolen animals.

The bandits carried out a raid at Leparua 10 days ago, in which three people were killed and one wounded.

The leaders from the Samburu community in Isiolo’s Oldonyiro Ward said among the missing are three children and a woman who had given birth hours before the operation began.

Leparua has been hit by inter-clan clashes pitting the minority Dorobo community against their dominant Samburu neighbours. The Samburus are also opposed to a wildlife conservation project managed by the Dorobo, claiming it limits their livestock grazing area.

Led by Oldonyiro Ward Rep David Lemantile, the leaders said the security personnel arrived at Karandare at dawn last Friday, sparking a mass exodus of villagers.

“They arrived at dawn in 21 vehicles and shot in the air, demanding that the villagers produce the bandits,” claimed Lemantile.

“The manner in which they announced their arrival scared the villagers, who fled their homesteads,” said Lemantile, who is also deputy Speaker of the Isiolo County Assembly.

Lemantile said hundreds of families have fled their villages, leaving behind their property.

“Those who fled now lack food and are starving,” he added.

He accused county leaders of abandoning the people of Oldonyiro Ward by failing to help them bring peace in the area.

But Isiolo County Commissioner George Natembeya dismissed the claims as “pure lies aimed at politicising security matters”, adding that no one is missing.

“No one has reported to the police that anyone is missing. They cannot even give you a single name because they are lying,” he said.