The government has issued a 24-hour ultimatum to all illegal firearm holders in Samburu County to surrender their weapons or face the wrath of the law.
Speaking after chairing a regional security committee meeting at the Samburu County Commissioners Office, Rift Valley Regional Commissioner (RC) Abdi Hassan said that the government has already profiled criminals in Samburu County, and an illegal firearm mop-up exercise will commence.
“It is only the government which holds weapons to maintain law and order, and anyone who owns weapons illegally will be dealt with according to the law.
We will come for you individually and for your families if they decide to shield you,” Hassan warned.
Hassan noted that due to the proliferation of illegal firearms, insecurity in Samburu County has been on the rise since the beginning of 2025, especially highway robberies along the Maralal-Baragoi road, cattle rustling in Baragoi and parts of Samburu West, as well as a new trend of robbery with violence cases in Maralal town, Kisima town, Wamba town and Archers Post town in Samburu East.
“We are prioritising combating the new trend of armed robberies in towns within Samburu, and we already have four suspects in custody.
We have also doubled patrols along the Maralal-Baragoi road to ensure the safety of motorists and also recovered 837 cattle out of the 1,884 that had been stolen in the last two and a half months,” the RC said.
At the same time, the RC made a passionate appeal to residents of Samburu County to maintain peace and work closely with security organs to combat rampant insecurity in order to attract investors in the county.
“Most pastoralist counties in Kenya are lagging behind because of retrogressive practices such as cattle rustling, which scare away potential investors,” he said.
By Robert Githu
