Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang'i has on Monday, May 2, announced a dusk to dawn curfew in Marsabit County effective today.
Speaking at the General Service Unit (GSU ) headquarters in Nairobi, Matiang'i declared that there will be a cessation of movement between 6 pm and 6 am for 30 days.
The curfew follows a spike in cases of insecurity in the county owing to the illegal possession of firearms by groups in the region that threatens national security.
"With effect from 6pm tonight, we have placed the whole of Marsabit County under curfew for 30 days. Any movement and activities must be cleared by the security sector," the CS noted.
"We have built and continue to build unprecedented security resources in Marsabit because we must bring that county under peace and ensure that all illegal firearms are surrendered to law enforcement agencies.
He revealed that the government had initially called for talks with leaders from the region and given them one week to restore calm in the region. However, the leaders failed to do so, leading to an increase in attacks in the county.
"The kind of mystery acts that we have seen in that area must come to an end. We are now ready prepared and available to address that clean-up in Marsabit once and for all. It is not going to be easy and we are not going in there to be popular we are going in there to solve a problem," the CS explained.
Matiang'i stated that there have been activities being carried out by unnamed groups in the region including those related to terrorism. He assured residents that the government had deployed security agents in the region to contain the situation.
"Any groups of people that will be moving in the area, whether they are engaged in the illegal mining or purported trade because they are essentially moving contraband and drugs and some of them are couriers of terror gangs.
"Therefore any groups seen moving towards that direction will be deemed to be armed, dangerous, combatant and our security sector will deal with you," Matiang'i reverberated
The Interior boss added that the government had received intelligence that the insecurity can be linked to a group based in a neighbouring country.
In the latest attack that happened on April 28, five people including a chief and his assistant were killed.
