Murkomen must stop playing politics and end North Rift terror

Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen. [File Standard]

Armed bandits struck Isiolo County, once again, on July 31, 2026, killing two people and making off with over 700 head of goats and sheep.

 In the meantime, Cabinet Secretary of Internal Security, Kipchumba Murkomen, has been keeping tabs on, and chasing politicians, threatening to arrest them over inflammatory utterances even as insecurity peaks under his watch.

  Murkomen has failed in his core duty to protect Kenyans and make the country safe  for all, including tourists who bring in the much-needed dollars and foreign investors. When insecurity and a hostile environment drive away investors, the country closes one of the doors to alleviating rampant unemployment.

  Across the North Rift, Eastern Kenya, and along our border zones, blood continues to flow with alarming regularity while high-ranking government officials offer empty reactionary press briefings and political declarations that local militias and bandits blatantly ignore.

 The brazen Isiolo raid followed a deadly rampage in Samburu County’s Loosuk area on July 10, where four people, including a courageous police reservist, were killed in a pre-dawn attack. The tragedy unfolded mere days after Murkomen visited the region promising to restore order. Barely three weeks prior, on June 22 in Loiborok, Samburu, bandits opened fire on villagers at a public borehole, killing one person and injuring three others.

 No corner of these targeted regions appears spared. In Meru County’s Mutuati area on June 10, heavily armed criminals raided Leeta Village, killing 60-year-old Reuben Kibaara and critically wounding a Chief Inspector of Police in a fierce gun battle. Further South in Tseikuru, Kitui County, an estimated 40 assailants invaded the Kwa Kamari Trading Centre in broad daylight, slaughtering seven people and burning down local shops and a petrol station. From the Kainuk stretch in Turkana South to the Samburu-Isiolo border corridor, key commercial transport highways have turned into perilous traps where herders, motorists, and small-scale traders are ambushed at will.

  What makes this domestic banditry crisis even worse is the terror activity along Kenya's eastern frontier. In early July 2026 near Liboi, Garissa County, Al-Shabaab militants murdered 14 police officers within a span of three days through a series of coordinated improvised explosive device (IED) attacks on security patrols. When the very security personnel tasked with maintaining order become constant casualties of unchecked violence, rural populations are left completely vulnerable to terror.

  Operation Maliza Uhalifu and recurring disarmament drives have clearly lost their deterrent power because state action remains fleeting, piecemeal, and reactive. The Ministry of Interior must move away from soundbites and political distractions toward sustained, intelligence-led security operations, full integration of National Police Reservists, and robust infrastructure development in these vulnerable communities. Security is not a secondary political duty. It is the primary constitutional mandate of the state. Until the government secures every corner of the republic, neither economic stability nor public trust can ever be restored.