Kindiki Praised Over Move To Arm Chiefs With Guns
Kindiki expressed that chiefs will be vetted to determine their conduct while using firearms...
Marvin Chege 
Nominated Senator, Hezena Lemaletian has supported Interior Cabinet Secretary Prof. Kithure Kindiki's announcement on Thursday, November 24 that chiefs and assistant chiefs in areas affected by banditry will be furnished with firearms.
In a statement on Saturday, November 26, Hezena expressed concern on behalf of the communities who have been hit by banditry attacks, noting that Kindiki's directive would help enhance the security in the areas.
She added that the chiefs are the local's version of the Presidency.
Senator Hezena Lemaletian speaking in Ganze, Kilifi County on November 5, 2022. /FACEBOOK.HEZENA LEMALETIAN
"I support the move to empower chiefs with resources and firearms. Banditry-stricken communities know where the shoe pinches.
"The local administrators are a direct representative of the presidency on the ground. Sometimes people first not politics!" she wrote.
Speaking in Arbajahan Primary School, Wajir County, Kindiki expressed that chiefs will be vetted to determine their conduct while using firearms to supplement police officers to bring forth security in the areas.
"Chiefs and assistant chiefs will be vetted to determine their ability to handle firearms. We must vet them because some of them are a bit old they might not be able to use firearms hence we must have a system.
“You cannot expect an officer to pursue criminals and recover stolen livestock using a baton. I have directed the security teams in the counties affected by cattle rustling to vet our chiefs and assistant chiefs so that we can arm them to protect the lives and property of wananchi,” he stated at the time.
He also directed that an additional 200 National Police Reservists (NPRs) be deployed in the area to beef up security and allow a sustainable environment for development.
“We won’t have investment and socio-economic growth in Northern Kenya without lasting peace, security and stability. We can only open up this region to investment through improved policing," he added.
The CS has been under huge pressure just months after his swearing-in after cases of mugging, cattle rustling and banditry attacks increased, forcing him to announce a number of measures.
In Nairobi, he effected immediate changes to the National Police Service (NPS) command in Nairobi following the spike in criminal attacks. Inspector General of Police (IG) Japhet Koome later named Adamson Bungei as the new Nairobi police chief, taking over from James Mugera who retired from the force after attaining retirement age.
He announced that the NPS put in place a multiagency and multidiscipline response to the insecurity problem "to get these our sons and maybe daughters to get them out of our streets and put them where criminals belong".
"We are coming to dismantle not only the criminals themselves but also to bring down the entire chain that has been the cattle/livestock rustling industry, the financiers, criminals, spiritual supporters, benefactors and those who purchase stolen livestock from Kenyans," he warned on Monday, November 14.
According to him, the government, in its update on dealing with the banditry menace in the north-Rift region, had located the bandits' hideouts and would launch a strike.
CS Kithure Kindiki in combat attire accompanied by Deputy Police IG Noor Gabow in Wajir on November 24, 2022. /MINISTRY OF INTERIOR
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