Residents of Marsabit County have been urged to love one another and to jealously guard the prevailing peace by co-existing harmoniously.
Marsabit County Commissioner James Kamau also directed chiefs to ensure that the Nyumba Kumi community policing initiative was working in their areas of jurisdiction as the best way of maintaining order.
Kamau observed that peace, which had eluded the county for some time, had been restored, thus giving room for investment and development, and hence should be protected at all costs.
In remarks made on his behalf by the Assistant County Commissioner (ACC) for Gadamoji division, Thomas Ngangi, during a meeting to end a 12-month Accelerated Response Initiative against Violent Extremism (ARIVE) in the area, the county commissioner reminded his audience that patriotism from every citizen was key in ensuring that there was sustained security and peace.
The county engagement forum (CEF), which spearheaded the Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund (GCERF), observed that the ACT programme, which is coordinated by the National Counter-Terrorism Centre (NCTC), has made a significant step towards fostering peace and countering extremism in the county.
He expressed satisfaction that the counter-extremism programme had managed to capture the rich matrix of the participants, with the youth being involved as active participants.
Kamau tasked chiefs and their assistants to ensure that community policing was not only active but also effective in their areas of work, saying that was the only way that acts of crime could be detected and stemmed as they emerged.
The county commissioner also directed the administrators to account for the number of school-aged students by ensuring that they attend school lest they be lured into criminal activities.
“I call upon you to bring around Nyumba Kumi so that you can manage to be on the lookout for timely action as concerns bad elements and strangers within your jurisdictions,” he guided.
The county commissioner asked the residents to continue giving cooperation to law enforcement agencies in order to enable them to deal more effectively with emerging cases of motorcycle thefts and other crimes.
“I urge Marsabit residents to uphold the prevailing peace and to continue coexisting harmoniously with our neighbouring Ethiopians,” said the county commissioner.
ARIVE through CEF has been striving to explore factors that make youth vulnerable to radicalisation and recruitment to extremism organisations and has tasked the relevant government and other agencies to offer those alternatives to their economic, religious, social, and even leadership challenges.
The CEF members had expressed concern that there could be a proliferation of illegal firearms and drugs due to the porous Kenya-Ethiopia border, which could easily negate the gains already made against violent and general crime.
By Sebastian Miriti
