A police Constable was shot dead on Monday, November 3, and his AK-47 gun was stolen while manning the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Examinations (KCSE) in Turkana County.
Reports indicate that the officer was gunned down by suspected bandits who hit the police constable on the head before making away with the rifle that had been loaded with 30 ammunition.
The officer was in the company of his colleague and was guarding an examination container at the Deputy County Commissioner’s offices when the bandits ambushed them.
A contingent of police officers was immediately dispatched to the scene, with the body of the officer taken to a nearby mortuary pending a post-mortem.
Preliminary investigations have since established that the suspects were after the officer’s gun, with efforts currently underway to recover the rifle.
The incident comes amid surging levels of insecurity in Turkana, with reports indicating that at least ten people have been killed by bandits in the Turkana-West Pokot border over the last two weeks.
Despite the government’s move to dispatch a multi-agency team consisting of the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) and the National Police Service (NPS), insecurity continues to be a major problem in Turkana.
Turkana is among the counties under the Operation Maliza Uhalifu alongside West Pokot, Samburu, Marsabit, Meru, Isiolo and Baringo.
This comes weeks after Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen announced decisive measures to curb banditry in the affected North Rift regions.
Speaking in Madera County on September 24, Murkomen revealed the government’s intention to arm chiefs and sub-chiefs in bandit-prone regions with guns to help in combating the vice.
He noted that the decision was a result of direct request by the chiefs and sub-chiefs in the bandit-prone areas, with the CS noting that some chiefs in Kerio Valley had already been handed licensed arms.
Murkomen also directed individuals holding illegal firearms to surrender them immediately to the nearest police stations failure to which the government would take stern action against them.
