Interior CS Kithure Kindiki has said that the training of National Police Reservists in Isiolo will start on January 31.
Speaking in Mulango, Isiolo county, the CS said the NPRs will graduate within a month and be deployed to help seal loopholes that bandits have been using to escape.
Kindiki said he would personally be in the county to witness their graduation.
"Training of National Police Reservists (NPRs) in Isiolo will start on January 31 and within a month, they will graduate. I will be here to personally witness their graduation.
"We will use these young men to help seal off all the loopholes that bandits have been using for years as escape routes after terrorising innocent people and getting away with their animals, therefore impoverishing them economically," he said.
Kindiki's remarks come a few weeks after he announced that he would gazette sections of Isiolo, Meru, Marsabit and Samburu counties as disturbed areas.
He added that security operations will be commissioned in these areas just like it has been for other areas prone to banditry in the Rift Valley region.
"I must clarify that it is not the entire Isiolo, Marsabit and Meru Counties that will be declared disturbed and dangerous. We will gazette specific parts of these counties so that the operation is effective and achieves its desired results," the Interior CS said.
The government of Kenya has been using Police Reservists to help bring order in areas prone to banditry in Kenya. The Reservists work together with other security organs in a multi-agency security operation.
In December 2023, Kindiki presided over the passing out ceremony of 140 National Police Reservists, in Igembe North Constituency.
The Reservists were deployed in Meru North, to supplement police efforts to tackle livestock rustling.
The CS said cattle rustling has remained a challenge in Meru North, threatening the livelihood of people.
Kindiki had vowed that 2024, is the year the government will completely eradicate livestock theft.
He said 2023 was the year of flipping the war on livestock rustlers and bandits.
"From next week, the government will commence an operation in parts of the Eastern Region as an extension to the ongoing Operation Maliza Uhalifu in North Rift Valley Counties," he said.
The CS noted that in the last 50 years, 14 Counties have been plagued with banditry and livestock rustling.
