President Uhuru Kenyatta battles insecurity nightmare in the north

*Police at the troubled Loruk border point in Baringo County where several houses were torched by unknown people.* (PHOTO: FILE)

NAIROBI: As President Uhuru Kenyatta’s government approaches midterm, the demand to restore security in parts of the country reeling from banditry and terrorism ranks high on his priorities.

But what is emerging is that the Government will need something akin to the Marshall Plan that lifted the US out of economic depression in the 1930s to even come close to guaranteeing security in Kenya’s historically lawless northern and north-eastern regions.

At least 15 counties have recently been scarred by terror attacks and ethnic conflict. And to add to the bloodshed, the consequences of insecurity like closure of schools and a troubled tourism sector are a liability the country cannot continue to brook.

The hotspots are largely in Northern Kenya, where Al-Shabaab and bandit attacks are common, and the latest reports by Isiolo leaders that gunmen had erected multiple roadblocks on a highway to extort motorists underscores the seriousness of the matter.

Education has taken a hit as hundreds of teachers from upcountry have fled Garissa, Mandera and Wajir counties with numerous schools closed.

And after Al-Shabaab terrorists in April massacred 148 people, mostly students at Garissa University College, the only public university in the entire NEP region closed its doors.

In the North Rift, where inter-communal conflict has claimed scores of lives, violence linked to cattle rustling has led to the closure of more than 27 primary and secondary schools in Baringo South and Baringo North sub-counties.

At the coast, tourism has been punctured by the adverse implications of insecurity with hoteliers reporting that 23 star-rated hotels remain shut, with the unfortunate implications of job losses and workers taking pay cuts for struggling establishments that remain open.

Businesses shut

In Marsabit, the country’s biggest county by size, spates of insecurity along Loiyangalani area have been reported and the Ethiopian army is said to have more than twice entered Kenya’s territory but authorities have denied.

Mandera Senator Billow Kerrow on Sunday captured the desperate situation in the affected areas in an open letter to President Kenyatta, saying the terrorist threats have isolated the already desolate region and created fear and despondency among residents.

“The situation has deteriorated to levels worse than during the infamous Shifta War, amid feelings of rising resentment and hopelessness among sections of the youth, with your government’s actions such as curtailing freedoms and issue of identity cards exacerbating the situation. Mr President, you have not visited this region since you were elected into office, even after hundreds of Kenyans were brutally massacred by terrorists,” Kerrow said.

Kerrow added, “Mr President, the socio-economic situation in the region has deteriorated rapidly, and the livelihoods of many residents have been destroyed. Businesses have shut down, and some markets and villages abandoned due to insecurity. Many upcountry businessmen have altogether left the region. Terrorists have defiantly camped in parts of Mandera and Garissa counties, hoisting their flags and preaching radical summons. Movement of the residents have been inconvenienced, as buses and other PSVs have to move only in convoys or with police escorts.”

The Government acknowledges the situation in troubled zones and also explains, like do observers, that terrorism is a global challenge and that part of the problems were inherited from past governments.

Interior Principal Secretary Monicah Juma told The Standard more police officers have been posted to the northern parts of the country.

“We are doing all we can to ensure that Northern Kenya is secured. We want to see Kenyans from other parts of the country flocking into the area either for work or business. We have so far moved more security officers to the region,” Juma said.

And to deal with the runaway insecurity, the Jubilee administration has set aside Sh224 billion for the new financial year to shore up police numbers, upgrade the intelligence and military technology and boost the morale of all officers, among others.

President Kenyatta, in the State of the Nation address on March 26, explained measures his government had taken to check terrorism and other international crimes that threaten the country, including poaching, human, drug and narcotic trafficking, and cyber crime.

“We are also faced with the challenge of ethnic and inter-communal conflicts,” said the President.

President Kenyatta explained that this year, the Government had increased the police operational fleet by 1,200 vehicles, bringing about a total of 2,400 vehicles provided in the last two years.

The recent recruitment of 10,000 police officers is also to stay the course of increasing the force by 10,000 recruits annually to systematically plug the shortfall.

Leader of Minority Jakoyo Midowo says marginal parts of this country are not under the control of Government.

“The police are inept due to corruption, not because of their numbers. We need to discuss the issue of insecurity and involve the county government has a matter of urgency,” Jakoyo said.

“We were given wise advice (from Uganda President Yoweri Museveni) on Madaraka Day on the vanquished militant group which is now targeting soft targets; we must now harden civilian population to see how they can play a role in security. It has happened in Mozambique, Angola and Israel,” said the National Assembly’s Defence and Foreign Relations Committee chairman Ndung’u Gethenji.