Wajir residents perform a cultural dance during the Kenya
@50 celebrations held at the Wajir Stadium on December 12, 2013.
Speaking during the celebrations, Wajir County leaders called on the
government to employ more police reservists in the area to help deal
with insecurity especially along the porous Kenya-Somalia border. PHOTO/ERIC MUATI.
NATION
Saturday, December 14, 2013
Wajir leaders have called on the
government to employ more
police reservists to curb increased cases of insecurity in the area.
Speaking
during the Jamhuri Day celebrations at the Wajir Stadium, Wajir South
MP Adullahi Diriye noted that there was lack of security along the
porous Kenya-Somalia border.
“We know the security
problem in this region is caused by lack of enough police officers and
we are asking the government to employ more reservists to increase
security in the border areas,” said the MP.
He said the
recent attacks and killings of several police officers in Liboi area
were caused by lack of enough security officials.
Mr
Diriye pointed out several areas in Wajir South and Wajir East where
there are no police posts despite the areas being prone to attacks from
militias.
CALLED FOR ACCOUNTABILITY
The leaders also called for accountability of resource used in the county and urged residents to support the county government.
Mr
Diriye urged the county government to complete development projects
that were left incomplete by the national government before devolution.
He
cited Habswein Hospital and several other projects that were started
and left incomplete before some of the functions were devolved to the
counties
County commissioner Naftali Munga’thia urged residents to embrace the Nyumba kumi initiative to improve security in the county.
“Nyumba kumi
is very important to pastoralists especially those of us living cross
the porous borders as people need to know their neighbours for security
reasons,” Mr Munga’thia told the Nation on phone.
County
women representative Ms Fatuma Ibrahim urged the county commissioner to
deal with the rapid increase of rape cases in the county.
She
urged the county commissioner to sack and discipline chiefs and other
government workers who help rapists escape unpunished by using local
conflict resolution methods
“As the Wajir County women
representative, I will hold you (county commissioner) and any other
government officials who fail to deal with these rape cases
responsible,” said Ms Ibrahim.
Wajir governor Ahmed Abdullahi said he had constituted a county committee that would deal with issues related to local conflict.
It will also come up with measures that will prevent crime and insecurity in Wajir, he said.
Mr Abdullahi has also constituted a committee to deal with the rapid spread of HIV/Aids at the sub-counties level.
“The
HIV/Aids prevalence rate is decreasing nationally, but it is increasing
here although our figures are not that high,” Abdullahi said.
He added that his government would also employ more Early Childhood Education (ECD) tutors and construct more classrooms.
He said his government had employed over 63 new health workers and will add a further 218 to enhance healthcare provision in the county.
“We
have invested Sh995 million in healthcare and by the end of this
financial year, we will have a referral hospital, several ambulances,
four mobile clinics, sufficient medical supplies and health workers in
the county,” said Mr Abdullahi.