Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen on Wednesday, February 26, revealed that poor communication from Ethiopian authorities greatly hindered any possible rescue operation on the night of a deadly militia attack that left over 20 fishermen from Lake Turkana dead.
“Due to poor communication on the Ethiopian side, information of the attack started reaching the Kenyan authorities late at night,” Murkomen stated
His statement came after the fishermen were killed at the Todonyang border point along Lake Turkana on the evening of Saturday, February 22, after suspected gunmen from Ethiopia ambushed them and opened fire indiscriminately.
Reports indicated that heavily armed Dassanech militia stormed the area while the fishermen were engaged in their activities on Lake Turkana.
The attack left several others critically injured, with fears that the death toll could rise.
Consequently, the CS informed the public that a search and rescue mission was underway after gaining full access to Ethiopia in the wake of the deadly militia attack.
Murkomen revealed that diplomatic discussions between Kenya and Ethiopia held in Nairobi bore fruit resulting in a security team gaining access to Ethiopia to conduct their operation four days after the attack.
“On Tuesday, February 25, diplomatic discussions in Nairobi between Kenyan and Ethiopian officials bore fruit late in the evening allowing full access to the Kenyan team to search for the missing persons on the Ethiopian side,” Murkomen stated.
“Today, the team from the Kenyan side, working with their Ethiopian counterparts, accessed the area of the incident and are currently searching for the missing persons and the 15 boats,” he added.
Further reports from local police suggest that the attack may have been a retaliatory strike following an earlier incident in which a well-known bandit shot and killed three Dassanech fishermen in Turkana on Saturday morning.
Aside from the dead fishermen, reports indicated that other fishermen were yet to be unaccounted for thus necessitating the search and rescue operation.
In the wake of the attack, Murkomen announced that plans were underway to arm police reservists as the government strategizes on both long-term and short-term strategies to curb insecurity in the border region.
"National Police Reservists, who play a critical role in complementing regular security agencies, will now be better equipped and incentivised to deal with militias and other criminal gangs," Murkomen stated.
Police reservists in the country have in the past expressed concerns over their welfare, with some of their challenges revolving around a lack of adequate compensation since they are technically volunteers supplementing regular police officers.
Amidst all this, the National Police Service (NPS) a day after the attack issued a stern warning to local communities in Turkana against engaging in retaliatory attacks.
