The Government intends to review the suitability of all Chiefs and their Assistants to serve in Marsabit County in an effort to restore and institutionalize peace in the region.
Interior and Coordination of National Government Cabinet Secretary (CS), Dr Fred Matiang’i, disclosed that it had been decided that the local administrative infrastructure deserved a 100 percent review as a matter of urgency.
Dr Matiang’i pointed out that the way the system in the County was currently constituted, has fundamental weaknesses, because analysis has shown that there was a deployment problem.
The CS who was on a security tour of the County, a month after he placed the region under a security operation to mop up illegal firearms, said that some of the administrators were not fit to serve, as they were not recruited on merit.
Dr Matiang’i observed that the administrators had become a liability to the government and the public, because their hiring paid more attention to irrelevant factors like clan affiliations and political pressure.
“The government wanted to be honest with the residents as the insecurity problem won’t be solved if the administrators had their loyalty elsewhere and not in providing security and peace to the public,” he said
Dr Matiang’i further said that it had been established that some of the Chiefs and their Assistants were not forthcoming in giving information and cooperating with security agencies on the ground.
The CS who was accompanied by the Inspector General of Police, Hillary Mutyambai, and the Eastern Regional Coordinator, Evans Achoki, ordered that the review on the administrators should commence immediately and be completed within a month.
Those who would pass the tests, would be retrained again, to ensure that they are effective in their duty.
He said the government was concerned that Marsabit County was experiencing security challenges despite having the highest deployment of security resources per capita in the country.
“Marsabit has more troops on the ground than in over 80 per cent of other counties in the country” he noted, adding that the government was determined to restore and maintain peace in the County.
Dr Matiang’i expressed concern that Marsabit town and the County at large was endowed with great potential for growth, but that insecurity had derailed it.
He said that the County and Marsabit town’s economy should be able to grow in an accelerated manner if peace is kept to the betterment of the lives of the local people.
CS cited tourism and business, as well as the proximity to the Ethiopian border, as a fertile ground for generating wealth and employment.
By Sebastian Miriti
