On Friday, Prof. Kithure Kindiki, the interior cabinet secretary, announced that the multiagency teams had all been deployed in the six North Rift counties' risky and unrest zones.
Their top objective is destroying bandit hideouts. A remote situation room has been set up in the region to provide command and control for the National Police Service-led operation that has enlisted the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) personnel.
To ensure that criminals never obtain access to these regions again, he declared.
CS Kindiki reported that in addition to illegal weapons being recovered, 124 people who were found to violate the dusk-to-dawn curfew imposed in the areas had been arrested and charged.
"As of today, 136 rounds of ammunition, 39 illegal firearms, and one fragmented rifle grenade (FRG) have been turned in by criminals," he continued.
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The CS announced that the amnesty period for turning in weapons would not be reinstated and added that anyone found possessing illegal weapons would be treated as a bandit.
CS Kindiki added that the operation has also adopted a diplomatic tack in light of intelligence showing that bushes-dwelling criminals have been escaping into the neighbouring countries of South Sudan and Uganda.
According to the CS, "Kenya is now working with its neighbors South Sudan and Uganda to block off all passages and channels by which criminals may elude one territorial jurisdiction to another."
The presence of long-term security installations, according to Kindiki, will make it easier for community development programs to involve the locals in social-economic activities as a long-term solution to insecurity in the region.
