Security camps everywhere, but no peace for residents

President Uhuru Kenyatta and former Inspector General of Police David Kimaiyo during a tour of Chesitet in Baringo County after the killing of 24 police officers by bandits. [Photo: file/ Standard]

When 21 police officers were slaughtered in Kasarani Plains in Kapedo Baringo County, exactly three years after a similar assault had been directed at security officers, the Government – for the first time in the country’s history – deployed the military to pursue bandits behind the assault.

Among the casualties in that attack were 42 police officers who had just graduated from Kiganjo. It was to be their first and last operation. In the more recent past, clashes between communities from West Pokot and Elgeyo-Marakwet counties have claimed at least 20 lives.