The regional security committee together with the county government of Garissa has agreed to suspend all gypsum mining activities, land allocation and demarcation in Garissa county with immediate effect.
This was among resolutions reached on Friday after a daylong meeting that brought together the county government of Garissa, and the regional and county security committee members.
It was held following the killing of 12 people in two separate incidents in the area.
Addressing the press outside the FTC hall, North regional commissioner John Otieno said that the meeting was geared towards finding a lasting solution to the insecurity in Garissa town.
In attendance were Garissa Governor Nathif Jama, Garissa senator Abdul Haji, Garissa Township MP Dekow Mohamed, Garissa women rep Udgoon Siyat, Ijara MP Abdi Ali and ODM nominated MP Umulkheir Harun
“As you are aware, six young men lost their lives on Thursday in the hands of criminals. And these are criminals, bandits that cannot be allowed to operate and to take away people’s lives at will,” Otieno said.
“To this end, the security apparatus have firm instructions to deal firmly with these criminals. We are going to enhance security, bits and patrols within the town,” he added.
He said that the county security team will ensure that all the issues agreed upon in the meeting are implemented.
Otieno said that the security teams have firm instructions to ensure that those behind the attack are brought to book and ‘that will be done within the shortest time possible’.
“We will work together with the office of the governor to ensure that all issues that are contributing to the insecurity in Garissa town and its environs are implemented to allow the citizens to carry on with their businesses in a secure environment without fear,” Otieno noted.
On his part, Garissa governor Jama condemned the attacks saying that all the leaders in the area are deeply ‘disturbed and concerned’.
Jama who read out the resolutions reached during the meeting appealed to the residents of Garissa to exercise restraint, be calm and desist from any acts of revenge.
“We are working very closely with the county and regional security committees to tackle the matters that could have led to the attacks. Please allow the security committees and us the leaders to resolve these matters. Restrain yourselves and desist from retaliatory attacks,” Jama said.
“We have agreed on some issues that we believe are some of the causes of these skirmishes. Our request as leadership is for the county security team to apprehend the culprits. That is their responsibility and they should hunt down these criminals,” he added.
He said that the meeting also agreed on the complete disarmament of all illegal firearms in the wrong hands within Garissa County.
“These illegal firearms in the wrong hands are a huge worry for us as leaders. We have enough headaches from Al-Shabaab and we don’t want our people to add more problems to this,” he added.
The meeting also gave the county government together with the security team the mandate to put to a stop all gypsum mining in the county.
“From Monday next week, no truck carrying gypsum will be allowed to cross the Tana Bridge police barrier. The gypsum mining was a major contributing factor to the mayhem in the county,” Jama noted.
The governor said all plots allocations and demarcations will also be suspended until security is fully restored.