This week, President William Ruto announced that he was dispatching the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) to conduct a joint operation with the Kenya Police in six counties that have experienced massive loss of life and destruction at the hands of butchers, bandits and cattle rustlers for decades.
In the last six months alone, over 100 civilians and sixteen officers have been slain by the ruthless killers, according to Interior CS Kithure Kindiki. For residents of affected areas there must have been a mixture of relief and trepidation at the announcement. Yes, the long-suffering citizens desperately want protection but they may well wonder at what price; how will the operation be conducted and how will it end up?
Similar exercises in the past left a trail of destruction, lifelong injuries and unwanted pregnancies. Yet, despite grave reservations, many support the initiative because the alternative is to abandon North Rift to ruthless gangs, reckless politicians and warlords, who are often same group.
Yet, what we are currently witnessing in these bandit prone counties is the end product of 60 years of negligence and indifference from central government. These six counties all fell under the Northern Frontier District (NFD) in colonial times but while the independence government may have opened the gates at the entrance to NFDs, they kept the areas closed to benefits of security, education and community development. It is no coincidence then that these same counties make up the bulk of four million Kenyans facing appalling hunger. Having lived for a quarter century in Turkana - Pokot area, I can testify that until advent of devolution, almost all education and health facilities in the area were established and maintained by missionaries, while government services ended at Tartar and Iten. Since the security machinery never bothered to protect the residents, respective communities armed themselves, mostly with AK 47 weapons looted from Moroto barracks in Uganda when Idi Amin's army abandoned the huge stockpile with the entry of Tanzanian army in 1979.
Pastoralists now had lots of weapons to defend their livestock and livelihoods, all they lacked were bullets which they somehow acquired from recently constructed Eldoret bullet factory. Guns in plenty soon began to 'omba kazi' (seek work) and progressed from defence weapons to income generating tools. Semi-literate politicians saw opportunity to ingratiate themselves with the militant youth and distributed bullets during election campaigns, as I frequently observed, while reassuring the bandits that they would shield them from any aggression from Nairobi.
In fact, these politically orchestrated raids were the everyday pattern right up until the turn of the century when it was okay to go on cattle raids and occasionally kill your enemy provided you cast your vote for Kanu.
All these six counties remained Kanu zones until 2002. Old habits die hard, however, and the more street wise warlords then ventured into the new culture of transporting stolen livestock through a score of police checkpoints all the way to ready markets of Kariokor and Dagoretti. What was conveniently ignored developed into a huge, well organised criminal business and the same political class reaped benefits from the plunder.
Prof Kithure Kindiki has at his disposal the whole intelligence service who know the warlords, their funders and their foot soldiers. The curfew and the threat of enforced disarmament will send thousands into the interior lacking food, water and shelter. This should not happen in 2023. Criminals must face the law, whether they are MPs, chiefs or ex-soldiers.
Ruto told his CS to move the office to the troubled area. He was reminding him that the task ahead is enormous and there are no quick or easy solutions. He will not solve the problem in a 30-day operation as expected.
A rushed, botched job will do more harm than good and create greater animosity between the people and its government. Kindiki must prepare for the long haul, and eventually come up with an inclusive Marshall Plan for the area. Anything less will be a waste of time and resources.
