More than police transfers necessary for better security

 

Senior police officers in Baringo County have been transferred in a reshuffle, ostensibly because they have been unable to bring under control runaway insecurity in the bandit-prone county.

Indeed, it is on the lips of every concerned Kenyan that there has been little, if any, impact felt in the North Rift area even after high-profile visits by the Inspector General of Police, the Deputy President and the President himself; visits from which guarantees of safety for residents were given. Utterances like ‘the police will leave no stone unturned’ have become mere clichés that fool nobody, for people continue to die and live in fear of bandits.

No major arrests have been reported, and the bandits always walk away after attacks which, too often, find security officers napping. The Kenya Defence Forces security operation ordered by Deputy President William Ruto early this year appears to have fizzled out without having made the area any more secure than it was before the operation.

It is a little confounding how a bunch of bandits can outwit trained security agents for so long and with such ease.

So brazen are the bandits that even the presence of the second in command of the country does not intimidate them.

They had the audacity to fire as Ruto, early this year, was assuring residents of their safety. The police need to exert themselves more to gain Kenyans' confidence.