Government's freezing warning message to politicians ahead of polls

juma chrispinus

March 22, 2017 5:34 PM

On Friday, President Uhuru Kenyatta directed that Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) soldiers be deployed in the troubled region after seven women and four children were killed the previous day.

The government has moved to issue a stern warning to politicians and civil society groups who have persistently continued to make reckless utterances related to security.

Government spokesman Eric Kiraithe, while speaking to journalists in Nairobi, warned that any jeopardy directed to the ongoing KDF operations in Baringo County will not be tolerated.

Kiraithe has told politicians that utterances related to profiling some communities were deemed lethal. He argued that a profiling that some communities were free to pursue their own needs with total disregard to the rights of others was promoting impunity.

He has reckoned that such a move will only derail efforts by the government to restore normalcy in the affected region.

“The government will continue to vigorously ensure that every citizen including those who are legally residents in Kenya enjoys full protection under the law from crime, fear or intimidation of whatever nature,” Kiraithe said.

He added: “Our Constitution borrowed verbatim from the United Nations Universal declaration of Human Rights.”

The move by the government to deploy security in Baringo County and Kerio Valley elicited mixed reactions from political leaders in the affected regions with a section supporting the move while the other opposed to the operation.

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Earlier this month, Pokot leaders, among them Sigor MP Philip Rotino and his Kapenguria counterpart Samuel Moroto, poked holes into the operation saying that members of the Pokot community would be disadvantaged as their neighbours, the Tugen, were in possession of illegal firearms calling for disarmament to be carried across the board.

The banditry attacks have since claimed at least 25 people in Baringo North and Baringo South sub-counties in the past three weeks.

The deployment came after some 151 police reservists and 230 police officers who were deployed in the area to flush out the bandits failed to stem the attacks.

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