Curfew imposed in Turkana, other disturbed areas to remain in force until further notice – Kindiki

Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki has announced that the curfew imposed in several towns across Turkana County and other areas considered disturbed will remain in force until further notice.

Kindiki announced this on Wednesday while responding to queries from Turkana Senator James Lomenen who sought to know the duration and impact of the curfew.

“The curfew orders in Turkana County or other counties where it has been determined that the state of insecurity categorizes them as dangerous and disturbed, those orders will supersede and we have no timelines. We will not say when those orders will expire. Those orders will expire when we are convinced that the current threat has ended,” he said.

Senator Lomenen had also inquired whether an impact assessment had been conducted on the effectiveness of the curfew in various towns within Turkana, including Lokichar and Kainuk.

He further questioned whether the government had any plans of potentially lifting the restrictions.

However, in his response, Kindiki disclosed that the state was reviewing whether certain towns should be exempted from the curfew, focusing on areas not facing security challenges.

“We are reviewing whether there may be a need to isolate specific town centres that may not be contributing to the security challenge we have in that area and remove them from the renewal of the curfew orders. That assessment has been going on for the last two months. There are indications that some of the town centres will be removed from the curfew orders the same way we did with some of the urban centres that had been included in the curfew orders within Samburu county,” Kindiki said.

NAIROBI, KENYA
WEDNESDAY, MAY 8, 2024

Appeared before the Senate Plenary to respond to questions on various National Security and Administration issues raised by Senators. pic.twitter.com/cCZQYDq06k

— Kithure Kindiki (@KindikiKithure) May 8, 2024

He, however, reiterated that the government will only consider the lifting of orders on a case-by-case basis in particular towns and urban centres, especially around the Kitale-Kapenguria-Kainuk-Lokichar-Lodwar highway.

Speaking in March after holding a status of County Security Appraisal Forum with the Turkana County Security and Intelligence Agency Heads at Lodwar Town, Kindiki noted that the government was committed to addressing the occasional attacks in Turkana County.

"Occasional attacks in the areas contiguous to the Turkana-West Pokot border and at a few points near Kenya's border with Uganda and South Sudan remains an outstanding assignment which the Government aims at addressing," he said.

The region has been grappling with persistent insecurity, largely attributed to frequent conflicts between the Toposa community from South Sudan and the Turkana community in Kenya.

However, the CS highlighted that there were some improvements due to the initiation of the Operation Maliza Uhalifu unit, launched in February 2023 to combat banditry in the North Rift.

He attributed the success of the enhanced safety in the regions to the deployment of National Police Reservists alongside regular security forces.

“The recruitment, training and deployment of National Police Reservists (NPRs) has significantly augmented the efforts of the formed-up units of the security agencies. This has brought normalcy on the Kitale-Lodwar Highway and several other areas within Turkana County which were experiencing insecurity,” he said.

Operation Maliza Uhalifu is being led by police forces and supported by the military in a multi-agency security team that also consists of National Police Reserve forces – volunteers operating as supplementary forces within their communities.