Mandera reacts to Nkaissery comment over Roba’s attack

Interior CS Joseph Nkaissery challenged to either quit or apologise for terming the attack on Mandera Governor Ali Roba a case of banditry, Billow Kerrow, the county senator has said.
“Nkaissery has no [good] explanation for failing to deal with the rampant attacks along the Kenya-Somalia border”, Kerrow said.
“The government needs to be consistent. You cannot say that an attack today is of terrorism and when a similar attack happens you say it is banditry. The government must start being serious,” he said.
He was speaking during a pastoralists meeting at Laico Regency in Nairobi on Thursday.
Kerrow asked Nkaissery to take the insecurity in northern Kenya seriously, “unlike his predecessors”, and seal loopholes in the sector.
“The CS has not found it necessary to visit Mandera after all the attacks, but can afford to sit in his office and say that he has confidence in his officers,” he said.
Kerrow noted that tough talk by the government will not solve the insecurity at the border.
“If he has confidence in his officers, then why those officers are unable to contain the cases of insecurity in that area?” posed Kerrow.
“If it happened in another county, those officers would be moved immediately because of the failure, but in our areas the government expresses uttermost satisfaction with the officers.”
Four people died in the attack on Roba’s envoy last Friday, and one other in an incident on Sunday.
Three who got injured are undergoing specialised treatment at Kenyatta National Hospital.
Several Mandera leaders, including Roba, have called for the transfer of county commissioner Alex Nkoyo over failure to protect the county from threats by terror groups.
While asking leaders not to politicise the attacks on Wednesday, Nkaissery however said Nkoyo will not be transferred.