Twelve police officers are admitted at the Maralal Referral Hospital after their Armored Personnel Carrier was involved in a road accident at Lorian Hills in Samburu West Sub-County.
Speaking after visiting the injured officers, Rift Valley Regional Commissioner (RC) Abdi Hassan said that the officers were on their way to respond to a banditry attack in Pura area when the Armored Personnel Carrier (APC) rolled injuring the 12 security officers.
The RC confirmed that bandits had attacked Pura Village on Sunday evening killing two herders while four others sustained gunshot wounds before attempting to drive away with 250 livestock.
The National Police Reservists in Pura exchanged fire with the bandits killing one and further managed to recover 200 goats and 28 cows. Our security officers are in the process of recovering the remaining 22 including those stolen over time along the Malaso Valley from Longewan to Pura and hand them over to their owners,” he said.
Hassan noted that the bandits have become bold and are daring the government since they use unarmed innocent civilians as human shields to avoid aerial and ground attacks from security officers.
“We have surveyed inside the Malaso Valley and noted that the bandits migrate together with their families and I urge all unarmed civilians to take the shortest route out of Malaso Valley or become targets of the government’s efforts to get rid of the bandits,” The RC noted.
The regional security boss further directed security officers to monitor a certain low flying aircraft which frequents the Malaso Valley with the aim of shooting it down because it is connected with the rampant banditry in the area.
In March 2023, the Interior Cabinet Secretary declared the Malaso Escarpment a scene of crime and issued vacate orders and banned low altitude overflights from private owned aircrafts.
By Robert Githu
