Member of Parliament for Pokot South, David Pkosing, is currently being interrogated by detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) over the ongoing banditry and insecurity in the region.
Pkosing was arrested on Thursday evening as he was leaving his office at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC). Several MPs from West Pokot, including Senator Julius Murgor, Woman Rep Rael Leotum, Sigor MP Peter Lokachapong, North Pokot MP Titus Lotee, and Kapenguria MP Samuel Moroto, have trooped to the DCI headquarters along Kiambu Road in solidarity with Pkosing.
The government has declared a total war on banditry in six hotspot counties, including West Pokot, where a combined security operation involving the police and military has been ordered.
Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki revealed on Sunday that in the last six months alone, more than 100 civilians and 16 police officers have been brutally murdered by marauding bandits and livestock rustlers in the Northern Rift Valley region.
To curb the rising insecurity, the CS imposed a 30-day dusk-to-dawn curfew in some of the areas affected by banditry in the counties of Turkana, West Pokot, Elgeyo Marakwet, Baringo, Laikipia, and Samburu as a corrective and deterrent measure. The government also gave a three-day amnesty for the voluntary surrender of all illegal firearms.
The move has been met with mixed reactions, with some leaders terming it a political witch-hunt aimed at stifling political dissent in the region.
