For years now, the government has employed different approaches to contain bandits in Kerio Valley, including shoot to kill orders.
In complementing the government's reform agenda targeting youths in the region, Tiaty secondary school in Baringo County has launched a special admission program targeting the young men in the area to save them from the lurking danger.
Speaking to the media on June 27, Moses Lourien the school principal revealed that the admission was intended to reform many of the locals who had opted to join bandit groups in the region after completing their primary education.
He stated that they were aiming to restore the tainted name of the region through the program.
"Education has really transformed this place, especially in eradicating other behaviour which has given this land a very bad name," he stated.
On his part, Danielo Lumatwa, one of the students who returned to class after 10 years expressed that the program was beneficial to him with the hope of securing his future.
He revealed that he went back to school after joining a religious group in 2019 and hopes to study medicine in one of the country's institutions of higher learning in the near future.
"I was not thinking straight and this worsened when I began indulging in alcohol. One time I sat on my own and pondered about returning to school.
"My thinking was that I had stayed at home for 10 years and that it would be easy to spend four years in school. I want to study hard and become a doctor," Lumatwa stated.
Tiaty MP William Kamket promised to continue rallying leaders in the region to implement similar programs so as to enrol more students back to school and reduce the illiteracy rate that stands at at 75 per cent.
"It is now we in leadership positions at this particular time who have taken it upon us to travel through this path - the path of transformation through education," Kamket expressed.
Early this month, the government imposed a dusk to dawn curfew in the Kerio Valley following the rise of the bandit attacks in the area which saw three pupils lose their lives.
