ILLS ABOUND IN KAPEDO, BARAGOI AND OUR MARGINALIZED REGIONS.............

Suguta Valley in Baragoi and now Kapedo; these places share a dubious distinction in post-independent Kenya; police have been butchered in their numbers while in the line of duty. And as the old script goes, the story of these young men and women who fall victim to the fire of bandits, cattle rustlers and other criminals, death marks the end of their story. They join the long list of statistics!

Both in Baragoi and Kapedo, it was evident that these ill-equipped contingents of Kenya Police were over-powered by the bandits and cattle rustlers’ fierce weaponry and also inevitably, better know-how of the terrain. This is how they have managed to slaughter our police men and women in their numbers, and sadly do so with near impunity. It has taken the intervention of the Kenyan Defence Forces (KDF) to face these ruthless bandits and cattle rustlers and to drive some fear into them, something that the police cannot do now. It is no longer the case of how safe Kenyans are , but how safe are the men and women who are supposed to protect them from the criminals? A lot in the system is terribly wrong, in as much admission is hard.

Kapedo and Baragoi is the Kenya that has been marginalized in all frontiers; political, education, infrastructure and health among others. It is sad and equally tragic that in these parts of Kenya, the residents hold on to some mundane traditions; chief among them is that cattles are a form of riches and the warriors in these communities still raid for cattle heads. These raids are everyone’s nightmare especially the community under attack, men, pregnant mothers and children are not spared from the gunfire. Some die while the lucky few, live with the permanent wounds, the raids a constant reminder of the danger that lies within.

Young men in most of these communities are not in schools and it does not help when very few schools exist in the areas. 50 years since independence, the young men occupy themselves with cattle raiding. Tarmac roads are alien to these people and the vast areas of harsh terrain cannot be accessed. And when our dedicated but ill-equipped police men and women are sent after the rustlers, their lack of the terrain know how of the mountains and valleys here leave them precariously exposed to the cattle raiders and rustlers who have clearly mastered the terrain here. A massacre of the police officers is never far away, as it happened in Baragoi last year and now, Kapedo.

To the warriors, bandits and cattle rustlers who have sophisticated weapons more than our police officers, the latter are their vulnerable victims. They kill them with impunity, take their guns and disappear into the darkness in the valleys and mountains of these harsh terrains. They ruthlessly ambush our ill-equipped police officers, kill them, take their guns and boots and vanish into their hide-outs, in a show of impunity.

These is the Kenya that has been deprived of development, education and slowly but surely, have been cut off from the rest of the country. With education, the people here would have embraced it, health facilities would have made sense to them and police officers would be a treasure to them. But when the same officers, while in the line of duty, are ambushed and killed in their numbers, their guns stolen and vehicles burned to shells, then we must open our eyes and act before we lose more officers in these places. Peace efforts amongst the Samburus, Turkanas, Pokots and the other communities in these forgotten places, must be heightened up. Schools should be built and the culture of education should be inculcated into these communities. Road infrastructure, health facilities and all frontiers of development should start making their way into these marginalized areas. The government’s presence, through development should be felt here. Therefore, elected leaders in these places, both to the county governments and the central government have their work cut out.

The Kapedo massacre on our police officers is a security problem, but it is inter-twined in many other problems that have faced this area since independence. Marginalization on almost all fronts of development by successive governments has slowly but surely brewed this security threats that we are now forced to send Kenya Defence Forces to stop and hopefully slay the dragon for good.

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The military operation in the disarmament process has been greeted with some skepticism from some quarters. But since our police have been outmatched and outgunned by the bandits and cattle rustlers in rugged and harsh terrain, then it calls for the Kenya Defence Forces to come in. with their artillery and bombs. They are more than up to the task. However, this is not the solution to the crisis of Kapedo and Baragoi among others, No. the long term solutions lie in developing these areas and slowly bringing the residents up to par with the rest of the country, just as Nairobi and other urban centers are.