Why policing 'Wild West" Rift Valley is no walk in the park

The killing of three policemen at Kainuk last Friday became yet another statistic of officers killed by bandits in the North Rift region.

Hundreds of police officers, many of them young officers fresh from college without bandit combat experience have lost their lives after being thrown into harm's way in places like Kapedo, Suguta, Baringo East, Marakwet East and Turkana South among others.

Apart from scores of innocent people among them children, their victims include senior civil servants and police officers killed over the years when either pursuing the bandits or enforcing the law in those areas.

Former Rift Valley Provincial Commissioner Ismael Juma Chelanga, who was perhaps the highest-ranking civil servant from the Marakwet community in the 90s and District Commissioner James Nyandoro died in Suguta Valley after their helicopters were separately shot down.

In total about 40 people have been killed in bandit attacks since Prof. Kithure Kindiki assumed office as the Cabinet Secretary for Interior in October 2022.

Kainuk and manyattas (villages) surrounding that area have been targeted for many years in attacks that have claimed lives of police officers and many innocents people.

A few years ago, daring bandits used to surround police stations in the area as they rounded large herds of cattle before taking off without a fight.

Unlike this latest attack where police officers were ambushed while on patrol, the bandits mostly engage the officers while on cattle rustling missions.

Stolen uniforms

Reports said the officers who lost their lives were stripped naked and their arms and uniforms stolen, as three police vehicles were also vandalised and one set on fire.

The officers on patrol were drawn from the Rapid Deployment Unit (RDU), Anti-Stock Theft Unit (ASTU), the General Service Unit, and regular police from Kainuk and Lokichar police stations.

In a show of might, the daring bandits engaged police officers who went to recover bodies of their fallen colleagues on Saturday morning.

"Kindiki has to resign because he is not equal to the task. For how long are we going to be killed?" asked Nadome Ekidor a resident of Kainuk.

Kindiki recently responded to the problem by redeploying the Kenya Police Reservists (KPR) disbanded by his predecessor Dr Fred Matiang'i over allegations that they were part of the problem.

"Same old tactics won't assist, because we are putting more guns in the hands of civilians who we call police reservist yet the problem still persists," says security analyst George Musamali.

It is indeed true that the KPR have in the past fought the bandits and secured cattle kraals during attacks but it also emerged that they sometimes either took part in banditry or gave out arms and bullets for raids.

A similar programme is also used in Uganda where Local Defence Unit personnel (LDUs), a civilian armed team similar to KPR is used to offer security in villages.

However, like in Kenya, some residents claim the ringleaders of the cattle raids hire guns from the LDUs to conduct the raids.

Last year, Capt James Edrin Mawanda, the Third Division battalion spokesperson told the media that the LDU could also be involved in the cattle raids banditry

Helicopter gunship

"We sent a helicopter gunship, we saw the cows, but there is nothing we could do at that point, because the cattle and raiders had crossed into another country (Kenya)," he said.

The soldier added that some LDUs had also deserted and disappeared with guns and uniforms, further complicating the problem as they experienced a resurgence in banditry since 2021.

A big number of them deserted, and disappeared with guns but 15 were recovered while five remained in wrong hands and were being used in the cattle theft and killings.

Mawanda regretted seeing the sight of the raiders in full LDU uniform, commandeering the looted livestock, that put a new twist to the security problem in the sub region which borders Turkana and Pokot of north western Kenya and Toposa of South Sudan.

Here in Kenya, police officers were in the past also accused of being passive whenever bandits struck.

Journalists covering many raids in the region witnessed how police officers on many occasions took a back seat as local armed youth pursued attackers with security officers following kilometres behind.

"It was big drama when charged youth, some of them bandits, emerged from villages with all manner of weapons to pursue raiders and fight battles to recover the animals that police thereafter took credit for," says a seasoned journalist based in Kitale.

In December, a senior GSU officer told The Standard that police officers operating in the troubled region are a demoralised lot because they work in difficult circumstances, yet politicians blame them for not doing much without addressing welfare issues.

"If they can visit and leave officers with even Sh50,000 for food and other needs at those camps, we will really appreciate that they care instead of just being critical," he said.

Cross border raids

Because of the resurgence of cross border cattle raids locals on the Uganda side are also re-arming themselves in order to protect their cattle from the bandits.

Different ethnic groups that have cultural relations across the border arm each other to either protect themselves or engage in the raids against rival tribes.Last year, Uganda President Yoweri Museveni directed the armed forces to deploy a quick reaction force with light armoured forces in each district and the use of unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) and air force helicopters.

But the frustrations amongst the affected communities continues as they blame the UPDF of laxity in responding to the renewed attacks.

Musamali links the resurgence of banditry in Karamoja and Amudat areas to local politicians there who like their counterparts in Kenya always defend their kin during attacks, thus fueling the problem.

Late last year, suspected Karamoja cattle rustlers raided Turkana and took off with dozens of cows despite the fact that President Uhuru Kenyatta had, before leaving office, signed a security MoU with President Museveni.

The two presidents appointed 41-year-old Ariko Lomuria to be incharge of the Turkana, Matheniko, Bokora and Jie Peace Committee when they met at Moroto in 2019.

Lomuria later lamented that helicopter searches used by the army and police are not effective because they cannot know which animals are stolen.

"You see the animals when you fly around but you cannot know which ones are stolen from the herds you see on the ground," said Lomuria.

In Kenya, local politicians have in the past been blamed for either buying guns and bullets for their people to defend themselves against raiders to gain popularity and votes.

As it stands, many guns are still held by criminals across that region.

Bullets and guns are now mostly sourced either from across the border in South Sudan where a civil war is still raging or from rogue police officers.