Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki Sunday announced low altitude overflights will not be allowed in parts of the north rift from Monday, March 13.
Kindiki said apart from aircraft taking part in the ongoing security operation, low-altitude overflight by any other aircraft over any of the specified areas has been banned with effect from Monday, March 13 until further notice.
The affected areas are Korkoron Hills, Tandare Valley, and Silale Gorges in Baringo County, Mukogodo Forest; Kamwenje, Warero and Ndonyoriwo, Lekuruki Hills, Losos and Kiape Caves and Sieku Valley in Laikipia County and Ltungai
Conservancy, Longewan, Nasuur, Lochokia and Lekadaar Escarpments, Lolmolok Caves, Pura Valley, Malaso Escarpment and Suguta Valley in Samburu County.
The other areas are Kapelbok, Nakwamoru, Lebokat, Ombollion, Nadome and Kamur caves in Turkana County, the Turkwell Escarpment at the interface of West Pokot and Turkana Counties.
“The above-specified spaces are hereby declared scenes of crime and any person found therein from Monday 13th March 2023 0830 HOURS will be treated as a suspect of armed banditry, or as a suspect of aiding and abetting banditry, or an accessory after the fact.”
He revealed the attackers are hiding at the bottom of gorges, escarpments, caves, ravines, hills and forests.
He, therefore, ordered them to vacate the areas within 24 hours.
Kindiki has threatened to reveal the individuals benefitting from the perennial banditry in the North rift.
Kindiki said a three-week joint operation in the banditry-prone region by the National Police Service (NPS) and the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) has generated intelligence linking a number of leaders to the banditry.
He at the same time revealed in the last seven months over 135 Kenyans, including 20 officers, have been killed.
The incidents happened in Baringo, Laikipia, Samburu, Turkana, West Pokot and Elgeyo Marakwet Counties.
This week alone, he added, nearly 12 Kenyans have been killed in Malaso, Pura and Kur Kur areas while six others have been murdered in Tot, Elgeyo Marakwet County.
“During the same period, dozens of schools have been closed, thousands of families displaced, and public amenities and infrastructure destroyed by these criminal gangs,” he said.
In a statement on Sunday, Kindiki stated that the intelligence has unmasked the senior commanders, spiritual leaders, political patrons and commercial beneficiaries working with the bandits.
Before long, added Kindiki, he will be laying bare the identity of the aforementioned individuals, adding that one spiritual leader “who has been providing prophetic support” to the bandits has been apprehended.
“In a short while, we shall be circulating the names and photographs of these dark pillars of the evil network that is banditry,” said Kindiki.
The government shall offer significant monetary rewards to any member(s) of the public who give us information that leads to the successful arrest of these dangerous elements.
Already, one of them, a spiritual leader who has been providing prophetic support to the bandits has been apprehended, he added.
He added security agencies have assessed the terrain and identified the “gaps to seal” without harming innocent locals.
“The government has conclusively identified the survival lifeblood that must now be cut to neutralize banditry for good. This vice has been supported all along by a toxic mix of bad terrain, weapon supply and banditry leadership,” he said.
However, despite efforts to tame the bandits, Kindiki said that the gangs continue to kill civilians and security officers.
The CS said the government shall offer significant monetary rewards to any member of the public who will provide information on the gang’s whereabouts.
“We are taking this war to their hideouts by land and air, with all our weight and might and with all the strength that God has given us to effectively defeat this lamentable catalog of crimes against humanity.”
