Senate Majority Leader, Kipchumba Murkomen, has ganged up with North Rift politicians against Interior Cabinet Secretary, Fred Matiang'i.
Unimpressed by the CS, the politicians, including Water CS, Simon Chelugui, Baringo Governor, Stanley Kiptis and Baringo North MP, William Cheptumo, petitioned Matiang'i to return the guns he seized from the area's police reservists.
They argued that the reservists were better placed at securing the region since they knew the escape routes and entry points of the region's cattle rustlers.
“I heard the Interior CS claiming that we don’t need guns to be in the hands of civilians. I want to remind him that National Police Reservists (NPRs) are not civilians and are part of the police force.
"The only difference is that they know the terrain of the porous regions and escape routes for armed bandits where the police don’t have that courage of going," stated Murkomen.
“We want to tell the National Police Service and the Ministry of Interior that they should consult the leaders from those affected regions on how to solve security issues before changing public policy. The deployment of NPRs was not done by accident and was meant to assist the security officers in identifying the areas where there are security challenges,” he added.
Echoing his (Murkomen's) sentiments, Chelugui divulged that the situation was so dire that a boy was killed at a point where the leaders had received Deputy President William Ruto.
"Last week, majority leader, we lost a child on the mountain where we hosted the deputy president. That loss is big and I wish this problem is sorted," argued Chelugui.
In early July, Matiang'i appeared before the Senate's National Security and Defence Committee defending the move to disarm reservists. He explained that it was aimed at accountability for all weapons issued by the government.
“The purpose of the exercise is to ensure we have orderly and disciplined officers to support the government on security issues, mark firearms and do ballistic tests to deter use of government firearms by criminals,” Matiang'i remarked.
