Turkana Woman Representative, Cecilia Asinyen Ngitit, on Thursday, March 2, lamented that her dowry was stolen by cattle rustlers.
Ngitit spoke in Parliament while contributing to a motion regarding insecurity in the North Rift region.
The MP was overwhelmed with emotions as she recalled the incident, which claimed the lives of her relatives. Moreover, she alleged that the recovered cartridges indicated that the bullets were manufactured in Kenya.
“These bandits are accessing ammunition from the Government of Kenya factories," Ngitit alleged.
She thus applauded President Ruto for sending the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) to banditry-prone areas.
However, she also alleged that some members of the August House were financing bandits. Some KDF soldiers, she added, were compromised and were not carrying out their mandate effectively.
At this point, the Member of Parliament for Ainamoi Hon. Benjamin Langat rose to speak on a point of order refuting, “This house is entitled to factual information. Casting aspersions on its members and KDF is completely out of order.”
MPs from Turkana county and other constituencies in the North Rift also chimed in, supporting Operation Komesha Uhalifu North Rift.
MP David Bowen of Marakwet East stated, “There are people who are not interested in livestock, they are interested in the business of arms and ammunition.
"These are the people the government should be looking for.”
He wondered why it was a tall order for the government to track suspects as it had access to satellites and other intelligence systems.
“Which country is this where even the KDF are deployed and the people are still daring our defence forces that are supposed to guard our borders," Hon. Lilian Gogo further wondered, while concurring with MP Bowen.
Ruto deployed the military and the police in a multi-agency operation in the North Rift on February 13. The government also sought the aid of Uganda's security forces to flush out bandits escaping to the neighbouring country.
