Stop helicopter gunships on Baringo bandits

By Abdikadir Noor Fidow

Although one of the many campaign promises of President William Ruto was to crush the bandits operating from Baringo.

 However, air strikes are not an option because they do not select the guilty from the innocent but rather destroy life and wealth indiscriminately. The use of air strikes within the borders of the state must be the last option, regardless of their engagements and strength.

Air strikes on civilian citizens are perceived as a sign of weakness of the government and will alienate the community that the targeted group lives with. This could destroy community lives and property, giving the bandits a fertile ground for recruitment to their ranks, causing the expansion of their criminal ideology.

Historically, the governments that used air power on rebels have failed. The targeted rebels expanded, thriving on the sympathy by the people affected by the air strikes. To contain bandits in Baringo and elsewhere, the government should employ the strategy and the machinery used to eliminate Shifta in the eastern and northeastern provinces.

The administration of that time never used air strikes or excessive force but engaged the locational chiefs, assistant chiefs and village elders in the local communities and banditry became history within a few months.

Abdikadir Noor Fidow, Nairobi