A senior police officer was
shot and injured in a clash with suspected bandits in Loiyangalani, Marsabit
County.
The Officer Commanding Station
Loiyangalani Police Station was shot in the left thigh and left with serious injuries.
This was after a group of
bandits that he and other officers from multi-agencies ambushed them on Sunday.
They were on board a police car
when they were ambushed, police said.
According to police, the officers were responding to a distress call in the area of an attack by gunmen.
A group of approximately 30
gunmen had regrouped at Manyatta DC village and were terrorising pedestrians
when police were called.
And as the officers were
responding there they came under attack.
The OCS was taken to a local
hospital for attention and later flown to Nairobi.
A response team sent to the area
managed to recover an AK47 rifle loaded with 11 bullets in a thicket. It is not
clear who abandoned it there, police said.
The area is under an operation
following renewed attacks from gunmen targeting herders.
A gang had on June 5 shot and
killed two herders and injured two others in an ambush.
A team of police responded to the scene and managed to recover all the shoats as the assailants escaped. This was after an exchange of fire.
The area is under Operation Maliza Uhalifu,
which was launched in 2024 targeting cattle rustlers.
The operation has managed to contain crime in
the area and other counties amid persistence.
Dozens of firearms have been recovered in the operation and this has been attributed to the reduction of the crime in general.
The operation targets Baringo, West Pokot, Turkana, Samburu, Marsabit, Meru and Isiolo counties.
Besides retributive reaction, strategic investment and sustainable development have also taken a prominent place among the government’s planned crime control interventions for Kenya’s Northern frontier and the Kerio Valley belt.
Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen said the long-term vision is to empower the communities to actively take part in the war against animal rustling and undertake legitimate nation-building activities.
He said plans to distribute subsidized agricultural inputs and extension services to area residents in a bid to revive farming activities as a source of livelihood.
“We are coming to dismantle not only the
criminals themselves but also to bring down the entire chain that has been the
cattle and livestock rustling industry,” he said.
