Remember the banditry attack that took place at Ng’aratuko Primary School in Baringo North as pupils were sitting exams and as Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki was attending a security meeting in the area?
Questions now arise: Why did the attack happen in the presence of government officials? Have the bandits become so bold as to attack paramilitary police camps? How safe, then, are civilians, and especially school-going children?
As Kenyan pupils sit the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education examination and Competency-Based Curriculum assessment, some parts of the country are still insecure. The never-ending story of banditry in the North Rift – Baringo, West Pokot, Samburu, Laikipia, Elgeyo Marakwet and Turkana – is a case in point.
However, Baringo county seems to be the hotspot. Historically, Tiaty constituency is notorious and suspect as it remains the source and home of the bandits.
The most recent event was when bandits daringly attacked a General Service Unit camp in Baringo South, throwing the neighbourhood, including Kapindasum Primary School, into panic.
Moreover, residents have raised the alarm over a suspect helicopter spotted hovering over banditry prone villages in the North Rift. Sometime last year, there was talk of a white helicopter. This time around a blue helicopter is said to have flown over before there was a flare of attacks.
This raises suspicion that the occupants were carrying out “surveillance” on how to aid armed attacks on the ground. Worse still, residents claim that the bandits use helicopters to search for gangs—ferrying weapons and ammunition used to wreak havoc in the North Rift.
Arguably, the illicit business and criminal enterprise has been known to span these counties for years persistently. This was when stolen animals were driven by cattle rustlers and reportedly sold in Nairobi masterminded by local and national leaders who were in safe havens—the untouchables of the time.
President William Ruto visited the region last September and put both the bandits and their funders on notice but nothing much has changed.
In fact, there have been many banditry attacks on motorists and pedestrians. As our children sit exams, villagers are alarmed that after the blue helicopter was spotted flying over Baringo South, attacks were carried out.
Local leaders too have raised their voices to the authorities concerned to take action, especially after a police reservist was killed and others injured during the raid last month.
It is also widely said that the National Security Council should visit the area and arrive at a solution over the disputed Kapedo border of Baringo and Turkana counties instead of continuously summoning area politicians to write statements at the DCI in Nakuru as was the case recently.
Therefore, there is need to secure our children and firmly deal with the resurgence of banditry attacks in northern Kenya this time and after the exams.
Even as investigations are on, wealthy warlords funding the violence using helicopters must be arrested and taken to court to protect citizens and property including our schools.
Lecturer, Moi University. [email protected]