Kapedo security operation should silence guns forever
The government has finally moved to deal with the insecurity problem in the Kapedo region of Turkana county.
Kapedo jumped into national notoriety when bandits brazenly ambushed and killed 22 police officers and three civilians in 2014.
Since then, bandits have roamed free in this region, killing, torturing and pillaging at will.
It is unconscionable that the government has allowed bandits to roam free within Kenya’s borders, terrorising residents with impunity, and even killing police officers.
In the latest episode, the bandits shot dead a General Service Unit officer and abducted, tortured and murdered 10 civilians, seemingly for the sport of it.
A very pained Kapedo resident asked, “Sisi in wakenya kweli? Serikali inatujali?’ (Are we Kenyans really? Does the government care for us at all?)
Organised banditry
The government has deployed a heavy contingent of security officers to the region to flush out armed gangs, terrorising locals at the border of Baringo and Turkana counties.
This time, the government must demonstrate that it cares for the people of Kapedo.
In the 2014 incident, the government deployed security forces to flush out the bandits.
This operation was not only short-lived, but clearly was an absolute failure.
What does that mean for the current operation? The government must this time go much further than the previous operations.
It must not stop until the bandits have been either eliminated, or arrested and jailed.
Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i, seems to embody this resolve.
“We have decided as government we will not postpone this problem again, we will sort it once and for all.
We will sustain the operation in the area until we get all criminals out, we will disarm them,” he said of the ongoing operation.
Indeed, he has moved to declare the region a special security zone, and has imposed a dawn to dusk curfew as well.
These are moves that indicate that finally, maybe the government has decided to stamp out this anarchy.
The government has the wherewithal if it really wants to silence the guns in Kapedo.
This is not the first time the government is moving to rid communities of organised banditry that has made life hell for Kenyans.
In March 2006, the government launched Operation Okoa Maisha in Mt Elgon, where a rag tag armed militia, going by the name of Sabaot Land Defence Force, had laid siege to an entire community.
Solemn promise
This militia, ostensibly protesting against land in justices, had been operating in Mt Elgon district since 2005.
They committed a wide range of atrocities including murder, torture and rape. They displaced thousands who fled to escape the insecurity.
It has been 15 years since the government operation in that area, and communities now live peacefully.
Similarly, in September of 2015, the government launched Operation Linda Boni, a major military operation aimed at flushing out Al-Shabaab militants hiding in the extensive Boni forest in Lamu.
The militants had instituted a wave of terror for months on communities in the Lamu area, and seemed to operate with complete impunity.
Since the operation was launched, calm has returned to the area, schools that had been closed due to insecurity were reopened, and social-economic activities resumed.
In other words, Matiang’i must keep the government’s solemn promise to the people of Kapedo that this time, it will not abandon ship before the job is done with finality.
Clearing the bandits will cripple the politicians who have been inciting , funding and giving them political cover.
The foremost mandate of any government is the security of persons and property.
Any government not achieving this, is failing in its primary duty, and it can reasonably be demanded that it resigns.
Further, failed States become so because of insecurity, and continued insecurity in various regions around the country can signify a country going down that slippery slope.
The government must, therefore, deal with all recurring banditry in any part of the country.
All Kenyans deserve to feel they are part of the body politic called Kenya. — [email protected]
