State should listen to the people on how to end banditry menace

Security team led by West Pokot county commissioner Apollo Okello meet with residents of Lami Nyeusi after a bandit attack left five people dead. [Irissheel shanzu, Standard]

On February 13, 2022, I watched as the widow of police officer James Lopeyok narrated the pain she went through after she lost her husband in Kapedo in 2015. Consolata Ekeno lost her husband and sole breadwinner while he was in the line of duty. In 2014, bandits in Kapedo killed 21 police officers and three civilians. The National Police Service reported 47 police officer deaths and 77 injuries that year. Police officers have indeed paid the ultimate price to keep us safe. Regrettably, most of the officers slain in the line of duty are young and promising.

Ms Ekeno and millions of others in these troubled counties have been affected by constant banditry attacks. These communities cannot safely collect firewood or tend to their fields or cattle. Bandits have shot dead people herding goats near their homes and tilling their small farms in dry areas to feed their children. Recently, Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki declared Turkana, West Pokot, Elgeyo Marakwet, Baringo, Laikipia, and Samburu counties as "disturbed and dangerous".