By Boniface Ongeri
NAIROBI, KENYA: The security agencies in Garissa County need to urgently restore public confidence to win the war on Al Shabaab militants, parliamentary committees investigating the chaos following the killing of three soldiers in the town said on Friday.
The committee led by Parliamentary National Security Committee chairman Fred Kapondi said the recent two-day rampage by the Kenya Defence Forces in the town had eroded public confidence posing further threats from the militants.
“The collective punishment of the community is unacceptable and the security organs cannot afford to lose the confidence of the public. Whoever is responsible has to face the law”, Mr Kapondi said during the committee’s sitting at a hotel. The committees that also included those of Justice, Defence and Equal opportunity were investigating the Monday and Tuesday rampage by the security officers following the killing of three soldiers. Kapondi said they will be tabling a “comprehensive, fair and uncompromised report in Parliament in two weeks time”.
The committee received memorandums and heard how the KDF beat and harassed people on the streets following the killings of the soldiers. Abdia Ibrahim Issack, a grocer at the Muqti Market that was burnt down during the fracas said more than 300 traders had been reduced to paupers after their wares were burnt to ashes.
The chairman of the Garissa Supreme Council of Kenyan Muslims Sheikh Abdullahi Salat told the commission that the residents have helped the Government fight Al Shabaab but in return the soldiers turned on them. “We have been preaching in Mosques that the Al Shabaab is the enemy number one, but with the soldiers riots, we don’t know what to tell the community,” he told the committee. He added that the military camp in Garissa town should be moved.
The committee was also told how the provincial and district security committees were divided. Mr Hassan Hussein told the committee that the North Eastern Provincial Commissioner Ernest Munyi and Garissa County Commissioner Maalim Mohammed were at loggerheads. “When top security officials are working at cross purpose, the security of the county is threatened,” Hassan said.
On the request of the Garissa county commissioner, journalists were locked out of the security committee meeting with Kapondi’s team. MPs Aden Duale, Aden Keynan, Mike Mbuvi accompanied Kapondi,
Abdikadir Mohammed, Rachel Shebesh and Sophia Nur
Keynan asked the community to help the security committee to fight terrorism.
