Security to be beefed up along Kitui-Tana border

By Andy Munyoki

The county government of Kitui will work with the Ministry of Interior and Coordination of National Government to beef up security at the border of Kitui and Tana River counties, Governor Dr. Julius Malombe has said.

Dr. Julius Malombe Kitui County Governor (Photo:Andy Munyoki/MCV)

With banditry and crime at the border reaching alarming rates Dr. Malombe has also promised to meet Mr. Hussein Dado, the Tana River governor to lay parameters that will bring to an end increasing insecurity and crime at the unmanned border of the two counties.

Close to a dozen people have lost their lives this year alone while others have escaped with fatal injuries upon criminal attacks as they cross over from one county to the other.

Traders from the Kamba and Somali communities have also lost goods worth millions of shillings to criminals as they transport them via the border.

The border line located in the south Kitui national game reserve is also considered a route for transportation of guns and other ammunitions by criminals who find safe grounds within the reserve to hide from security officers from Kitui County.

“I have spoken to my colleague Hussein Dado over security matters at the border and we shall hold a meeting later this weekend to discuss that” Dr. Malombe said.The two leaders will also discuss their governments’ participation in an operation organized by the ministry of interior and coordination of national government to drive out all encroachers from the south Kitui national game reserve.

Three shopping centers found within the reserve are considered the most insecure places in the region with frequent mugging of traders reported by security officers.

Political interests, ivory and charcoal trade have been mentioned by security officers from the region as the greatest hindrances to a successful eviction of encroachers from the game reserve.Despite concerted efforts by the Kenya Forest Service and Kenya Wildlife Service officials to drive out pastoralists, charcoal burners and poachers form the bulk of nomadic and Kamba communities still living in  the 1833square km reserve.

And now government officials blame local politicians for failure to support them as they labor to redeem the image of the resource gazetted in July 1979 and recorded as the largest game reserve in the country.

31 people were arrested by Kenya forest service officials while burning charcoal in the reserve and arraigned in a Tana River court on Friday where ten of them were sentenced to a six month imprisonment while the others were released on a Ksh 500 fine.