A notorious bandit is among three people who have been killed by police officers during a shootout at Lorugum village in Turkana county.
Police said Simon Egielan Lopongorei, 37, had three active court cases for robbery with violence, gang-rape and threatening to kill.
Lopongorei had been under investigation for a series of unresolved violent crimes, including highway robberies, stock theft and possession of illicit firearms for hire within Loima subcounty.
An AK47 rifle with three bullets was recovered from the bandits during the Saturday shootout.
Another suspect was identified as Lokucha Ngeruk alias sharpshooter aged 39, who was believed to be a close associate of Lopongorei.
Ngeruk had been on the run after having been identified as the killer of a police officer at Kangalita about three months ago.
He was allegedly part of a group that organised and ambushed the then-Lorugum police station commander on December 28, 2023. The officer was wounded but an alleged accomplice of Ngeruk was shot dead.
The third slain man was identified as 21-year-old Liya Logumo.
Police said efforts were ongoing to trace the other bandits who escaped following the shootout. Police said they recovered 10 spent cartridges from the scene.
Turkana County is among the areas that were initially affected by banditry but are now experiencing relative calm.
According to Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki, the security situation in Turkana County has considerably improved since the commencement of Operation Maliza Uhalifu a year ago.
The recruitment, training and deployment of National Police Reservists (NPRs) has returned to normalcy the Kitale-Lodwar Highway and several other areas within Turkana County that were experiencing insecurity.
However, according to Kindiki, occasional attacks in the areas contiguous to the Turkana-West Pokot border and at a few points near Kenya's border with Uganda and South Sudan remain a challenge that the government plans to tackle.
He made the remarks Thursday when he held a status of County Security Appraisal Forum with the Turkana County Security and Intelligence Agency heads at Lodwar Town.
This meeting was aimed at generating appropriate interventions for completing the task.
Kindiki said cattle rustling in northern Kenya has over the years become an organised criminal enterprise responsible for deaths, poverty and displacement.
“Its [banditry’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.
The government is sustaining the war on banditry and its perpetrators, enablers, benefactors and beneficiaries by making it a painful venture, ensuring recovery of stolen livestock and rewarding facilitators of recoveries, the cabinet secretary said.