Interior Cabinet Secretary Prof. Kithure Kindiki says the government will spend Sh20 billion to modernize police equipment in a bid to neutralize banditry in the country.
The CS made the revelation when he appeared before Parliament on Wednesday, becoming the first Cabinet Secretary under the new constitution to appear before the National Assembly.
The Mps took the CS to task to explain why bandits are still active in North Rift, months after the government deployed troops to the region.
“We have been able to dominate the permanent abodes where the suspected bandits were hiding whenever they steal livestock, but when we issued out the vacation notice to residents, some of these criminals could have mixed with the population,” said the CS.
“Because security forces cannot be everywhere and guard every homestead they (bandits) are making sporadic raids, sometimes successful but we have prevented and thwarted attacks and even recovered livestock on a daily basis.”
CS Kindiki said the Ministry is acquiring three helicopters and armored vehicles to enhance the capacity of the police service.
He also told the MPs that plans were underway to restore the National Police Reservists in the banditry-prone areas.
CS Kindiki insisted that security agents will remain in North Rift even after the operation.
“Whenever they will be called on, the security agents will remain there for as long as Kenya exists to ensure that this problem does not occur because previously we have done an operation and as soon as there is some semblance of tranquillity, we recall the security agencies,” said he CS.
“We are up-scaling the numbers of security agents we have. We are doubling them, and as I have announced, this deployment will not cease with the end of the operation.”
CS Kindiki said his ministry has since approved an additional 200 police reservists who will begin operations after receiving appropriate training.
“100 of these will be for Baring North while the remaining will be for Baringo South. Training is going to start before Friday because we believe the security agencies cannot be in every homestead but reservists can help mitigate attacks in a big way,” he said.
“I have provided money for their training immediately. We will not be asking stakeholders to help us; we will do it ourselves.”
