Murkomen to visit Kerio Valley amid banditry attacks

Interior and National Administration Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen is set to hold a high-level security meeting in Kerio Valley on Monday, April 28, 2025.

This comes as the government steps up efforts to consolidate peace in the region. 

Officials said the meeting, at the Chesongoch Sisters Facility in Elgeyo Marakwet County, will bring together top security and National Government Administrative Officers (NGAO) drawn from Marakwet East, Baringo West, Tiaty, Kerio Valley, and Pokot Central sub-counties. 

The Kerio Valley engagement comes as Operation Maliza Uhalifu (OMU) — a multi-agency security operation launched in 2023 to flush out bandits and address emerging crimes in the North Rift — continues to register significant progress. 

During the recent commissioning of OMU’s second command centre in Kirimon, Laikipia County, CS Murkomen noted that the first phase of the operation had restored economic activities and reopened schools, hospitals, and critical infrastructure across the vast region. 

The new Kirimon command centre is part of the government's recent efforts to intensify the crackdown on bandits. It complements the first one in Chemolingot and covers Laikipia, Samburu, Isiolo, and parts of Meru. 

The Kerio Valley meeting also follows successful Jukwaa La Usalama security and service delivery forums in the Coast and Lower Eastern regions. 

A key focus of the Kerio Valley meeting will be the ongoing reforms in the National Police Reservists (NPR) program, particularly the establishment of a clearer command structure, revetting, improved welfare and kitting as well as a comprehensive retraining program, his office said. 

The government is keen to ensure NPRs operate under a streamlined chain of command and are equipped to better support the National Police Service and NGAOs in insecurity-prone areas. 

Another reform on the table is the licensing of Chiefs to own firearms in security-risk areas — a proposal that Murkomen has strongly championed. 

Chiefs who have undergone paramilitary training, and whose security is demonstrably at risk are set to be licensed to possess firearms. 

Murkomen has also been pushing broader administrative reforms, including a promotion and reward scheme, better remuneration, and improved kit for police officers, chiefs and their assistants. 

“The end beneficiaries of all these security reforms are wananchi who will be able to go about their businesses and take their children to school undisturbed,” said Murkomen. 

Additionally, the Cabinet Secretary is expected to push for closer collaboration with Members of Parliament to leverage the National Government Constituencies Development Fund (NG-CDF) for the construction and equipping of NGAO offices. 

This initiative aims to bring government services closer to locals, especially in hard-to-reach and high-risk areas. 

Last week, gunmen shot and killed two people in an ambush along the Nginyang-Marigat road in Baringo County.

The deceased included a lorry driver and his passenger, police said. 

The gunmen also shot and injured an occupant in two different lorries in the April 21 attack.

The vehicles were under the escort of police when a gang that was waiting struck.

Police said the gunmen struck as the two lorries that were transporting a herd of goats were negotiating a hilly area. This forced the police who were escorting the group to take cover.

It was then that the driver was found dead and two other men were injured.

One of the men died while being taken to the hospital, while the second one is nursing wounds, police said.

Police said the incident happened at Kipcherere drift, located at the border of Baringo North and Mukutani sub-counties.

Cases of cattle rustling have been on a slow decrease due to the operations mounted by security agencies.

Murkomen has been leading the operations in the area, vowing to end the menace.

He said cattle rustling in Northern Kenya has over the years become an organised criminal enterprise responsible for deaths, poverty and displacement.

“It’s impacts are severe. It deprives pastoral communities of their economic mainstay and aggravates the conditions of poverty in the rangelands, fuelling communal grievances and revenge attacks,” he said.