Senator Halakhe wants Matiang’i, Mutyambai to address rampant bandit attacks in Wajir, Isiolo
Nominated Senator Abshiro Halakhe has asked Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i and Inspector General of Police Hillary Mutyambai to address the rampant bandit attacks at Madowale on the border of Wajir and Isiolo counties.
In the latest incident, suspected bandits killed three women, two men and a child and scores injured in a dawn attack in Mado Wale village, Bassa location, Merti sub-county.
The attackers also vandalized a borehole used by the local Borana community before fleeing.
“Let me convey my deepest condolences to the families who have lost their loved ones,” Ms Halakhe said in a press statement on Monday, while condoling with the bereaved families.
“In the same breath, I heavily condemn these heinous acts, which are now snowballing into a devastating crisis if the perpetrators are not stopped in their tracks,” she noted.
The senator added: “Besides losing innocent lives, with our women and children being the greatest casualties of these senseless but well-orchestrated attacks, our county’s economy is on a drastic meltdown,”
According to the Senator, destruction of livelihoods and consistent disruption of economic activities by bandits is leaving the people of Isiolo susceptible to perpetual poverty, not to mention the mental anguish.
“It is unacceptable that these incessant violent aggressions always leave a trail of blood of our people. We have been decrying insecurity in our county as leaders but our plight is seemingly falling on deaf ears,” she claimed, wondering if the lives of the people of Isiolo is worth anything.
She said despite the actions taken by the government to tame the menace, she said it is nigh for security apparatus to step up and prevent the attacks because county’s security agencies are always one step behind the bandits.
In a separate interview with People Daily on Monday, Isiolo North MP Hassan Odha condemned the attack.
He mourned over the incessant attacks along the Isiolo-Wajir border in the recent past that he claimed are intended to displace the local Borana community.
According to him, the sponsored bandit attacks target strategic boreholes and the community's grazing fields.
"We are tired of being killed by bandits on our land and call on the Ministry of Interior to deploy Rapid Deployment Unit and General Service Unit officers to all strategic boreholes in Bassa and Yamicha locations," Odha said,
“I ask the government to bring to book all culprits,” he added, maintaining that no amount of force will displace Isiolo residents from their land.
The MP blamed the attacks on the recent creation of Hadado Sub-County in the neighbouring Wajir County which has some locations under Merti Sub-County in Isiolo.
