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Security officers to be reorganised in Northern counties to boost security

Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki with security officers at Salama Camp in Lamu on February 13, 2024. (Interior Ministry)

By Issa Hussein | 15 Feb 2024

Kindiki said the government will also upgrade security infrastructure to improve public safety and security in the region.

The government will upgrade security infrastructure and reorganise security personnel in the Northern Counties to improve public safety and security in the region, Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki has said.

Kindiki said that by Thursday, the state had acquired new mobility equipment for security officers deployed in Wajir, Mandera, and Garissa Counties, and other areas which are affected by the threat of terror.

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"The equipment, which includes armoured personnel carriers and mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicles, will be distributed to security officers from next week, in a programme aimed at ensuring that the North Eastern, Upper Eastern and Upper Coastal Regions are safe and secure like the rest of the country, and open them up for development and investment," he said.

Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki during a meeting with North Eastern security heads in Wajir on February 14, 2024. (Photo: Interior Ministry)

The CS, who held a strategy briefing with North Eastern security managers in Wajir town on Wednesday, further noted that the region is replete with critical economic essentials for Kenya's transformation.

"The region's full contribution to our country's Gross Domestic Product hinges on the creation of a safe and secure environment for local and external investment."

The CS underlined the government's commitment to secure every part of the country and deal ruthlessly with persons involved in contraband trade, trafficking in narcotics, human trafficking, banditry and livestock rustling.

He said that sub-counties in Wajir and other parts of the country that were gazetted as troubled will be operationalised within this financial year, to ease access to government services.

"Next month, the National Police Reservists will be recruited and trained to supplement the efforts of multi-agency security officers deployed in Wajir to combat financiers, planners and orchestrators of terror attacks," he said.

Interior CS Kithure Kindiki engaging members of the public at Makowe Lamu on February 13, 2024. (Photo:

While in Wajir, he operationalised Eldas South Sub-county, commissioned the sub-county Headquarters and installed Samuel Mokua as the first deputy county commissioner.

Wajir Governor Ahmed Abdullahi, Senator Abass Sheikh, and MPs Fatuma Jehow (woman representative), Adan Keynan (Eldas), Adan Daud (Wajir East), Mohamed Adow (Wajir South) and Yussuf Mohamed Farah (Wajir West) were among the leaders present.

On Tuesday, Kindiki toured Lamu County where he held engagements with frontline officers at the newly established Salama camp before having a meeting with the local community and Governor Issa Timamy at Makowe.

He underscored the need for the establishment of additional security facilities, constant review of existing operational capabilities and generation of durable solutions to the complex security threats that he said required regular reviews and locally processed measures.

Kindiki said the government will continuously review covert and overt interventions to sustain the war on terror and other threats to national security.