Look for smart ways to end the endemic carnage from bandits

A police officer on patrol at Karnee Primary School. [Kipsang Joseph, Standard]

It was business-as-usual as the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examination started yesterday, except in Baringo County. It is not certain that all the registered candidates wrote the Mathematics and English tests; those lucky to do did it as gunfire rent the air.

Banditry attacks in the last week have led to the death of six unharmed civilians most of them going about with their lives- two were milk delivery men back from their daily rounds. Hundreds of others have fled their homes for fear of attacks.

Yesterday, the bandits staged another attack in broad daylight in Kapkosum village and disrupted the ongoing exam at Kapkechir and Karnee primary schools.

As if it were not enough that these attacks have disrupted normal life in these areas, that the bandits can interrupt a national exercise closely guarded by security officers is reason enough to believe the situation in the North Rift county is now getting out of hand.

The month-long Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exam is also starting in the course of the week and no one can now guarantee these candidates that they will write the test uninterrupted.  

This means the future of an entire generation is being killed under the watchful eyes of the government.

Besides the lifelong trauma inflicted on the young ones, the risk is that most of the youngsters will stay out of school for fear of attacks. That risks creating a cycle of violence. And with a population of many youngsters with nothing to live for, you can bet more violence and more death and destruction.

And with the August General Election fast approaching, the violence is very likely to escalate, given that political campaigns have shown in the past to be fertile breeding grounds for such deadly chaos.

Besides the loss of life, most of these deadly attacks are taking place in the remotest and poorest of regions where education remains the only ladder out of poverty. 

And because past disarmament and military operations have not achieved much, the authorities should moot better and sustainable measures to end the carnage. We cannot do the same thing and expect different results.

In addition to co-opting political leaders from the region into peace and security missions, government must devise grassroots-driven ways that tackle the endemic problem conclusively.

One sure blow – including promoting education as a door opener – would be poverty alleviation programmes, specifically economic empowerment projects that are tailored for the mostly subsistence agricultural activities like bee-keeping and goat-rearing.

Cutting off the supply chain of stolen cattle is also another.