Residents of Turkana on Wednesday blocked five tanker trucks from ferrying crude oil to Mombasa in protest over insecurity in the area.
The hundreds of area locals stopped the trucks at Kalemngorock Centre along the Lokichar-Kapenguria road. This despite the fact that the trucks were accompanied by armoured police vehicles.
A local resident, Philip Lodio, said that a few hours after President Uhuru Kenyatta issued a shoot-to-kill order at Ngamia 8 earlier this month, three police reservists were shot dead and livestock stolen.
“Since then we have been experiencing several bandit attacks with the latest being in Kamuge village. Our people at Kapedo along the border of Baringo and Turkana counties rely on security to get access to shops at Marigat town or Lokori town or even to fetch firewood,” he is quoted as saying by Business Daily.
He added that since the oil discovery, Turkana residents have been protecting the oil fields diligently.
“There is no way we can be a security threat to the oil we have protected and guarded for years. So the specialised and additional security personnel (protecting oil) should head to Kapedo and secure our people,” he added.
Other residents demanded that they are employed as road marshals to ensure that livestock does not interfere with the ferrying of oil.
The tanker trucks returned to Lokichar pending a resolution.
So far, at least 100 trucks of oil have ferried crude from Turkana since the first four were flagged off by Kenyatta in a historic event held at the Ngamia 8 oil fields in Lokichar.
