Kenyan President William Ruto has ordered the deployment of the army to reinforce a security operation against unidentified gunmen responsible for more than a hundred deaths in the Rift Valley region (north) in recent months.
The decree, reported by the official newspaper ‘The Kenya Gazette’, highlights that the military will be deployed from Wednesday «in support of the National Police Service in response to the security emergency in Turkana, West Pokot, Elgeyo, Marakwet, Baringo, Laikipia and Samburu counties due to incidents of banditry».
Interior Minister Kindiki Kithure on Monday declared a 30-day curfew in parts of six counties in the region due to the «security situation,» which he deemed «a national emergency.» «Painful and decisive measures must be taken immediately,» he stressed in a statement.
Thus, Kithure specified that «during the last six months, more than one hundred civilians and 16 policemen have been brutally killed by marauding bandits and cattle rustling terrorists in the Rift Valley region.»
«These murderous gangs have over the past few days increased their terror against innocent Kenyans and security agencies and in the process have torched schools, police vehicles and other social assets. Hundreds of Kenyans have been displaced from their homes by the attacks,» he lamented.
He therefore called on «all persons» who «have illegal firearms or ammunition» to «surrender them immediately and unconditionally» within three days. «If they fail to do so, the culprits will face the full force of the law,» he concluded.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
