Baringo County Commissioner (CC) Stephen Kutwa has offered a one-month amnesty to illegal gun holders to surrender their weapons to authorities.
He assured residents that no action will be taken against any individual who voluntarily surrendered illegally acquired firearm noting that the exercise was already bearing fruit after at least 20 guns were last week voluntarily surrendered within a record one day in Kolowa Ward, Tiaty Constituency.
“We are urging them to surrender the illegal firearms during the amnesty period after which we shall try and integrate them into the society and train them on alternative sources of livelihoods,” Kutwa explained.
The CC warned all those who fail to submit the illegal guns within the remission period that they will be pursued to their hideouts without mercy and they will find it rough.
Kutwa made the call in his Kabarnet office on Wednesday when he briefed the press on the progress so far made in the recovering of illegal firearms in the county where he guaranteed those surrendering of their safety and support.
He noted that the appeal is extended to residents especially of Kolowa and Silale areas which they believe hold the highest number of illegal guns.
Kutwa at the same time congratulated residents for forwarding crucial information to security agencies after Jukwaa la Usalama for Baringo County which he said was an eye opener to stakeholders.
He encouraged local communities in banditry and cattle rustling prone areas to continue collaborating with the multi-agency security teams in the county in order for peace and stability be restored in the expansive region which has not known peace for a long time.
Kutwa assured that the national government was doing everything possible to ensure that all those who were displaced in the past due to perennial insecurity challenges return to their ancestral land to continue with normal lives.
He mentioned the ongoing livestock restocking programme and reconstruction of 14 vandalized schools as some of the initiatives aimed at bringing normalcy to the affected areas.
The commissioner noted the county is largely peaceful resulting in some of the schools that had been closed due to cattle rustling and banditry being reopened.
By Benson Kelio and Joshua Kibet
