Why proposed cemetery for bandit victims is a grave matter in Baringo
Baringo North MP Joseph Makilap at a past event. The politician has proposed that a five-acre plot be set aside to facilitate documentation of those killed by bandits and speed up compensation.
What you need to know:
- Mr Makilap wants a five-acre plot set aside for the purpose arguing that it will facilitate documentation of those killed and speed up compensation.
- But a section of residents in Baringo have not taken this plan lying down terming their leaders pessimists and questioning their motive.
A proposal by two senior politicians in Baringo county to set aside a cemetery for burial of banditry victims has sparked an uproar from a section of residents who have questioned their motives.
Want to hear nothing of it
Despite Baringo North MP Joseph Makilap’s proposal having the backing of Governor Benjamin Cheboi, residents want to hear nothing of it instead asking for a lasting solution to the perennial menace.
Mr Makilap wants a five-acre plot set aside for the purpose arguing that it will facilitate documentation of those killed and speed up compensation.
“I will not sit and watch as my people suffer courtesy of the perennial bandit attacks and for that reason, we have resorted to setting aside a five-acre cemetery in Ng’rora Location to bury victims of banditry. We will start by burying the five people shot dead recently in the said area,” the MP said in his backyard over the weekend.
The way they did in Rwanda
“We want to set aside that cemetery for that purpose, just the way they did in Rwanda where victims of genocide were buried so that we have history as a people that one day, we shall deal with criminals. In this case, if someone is killed by bandits from today onwards, we will bury them in the allocated land,” asserted the MP.
But a section of residents in Baringo have not taken this plan lying down terming their leaders pessimists and questioning their motive.
End the endless killings
They said instead of looking for homegrown solutions to end the endless killings, their leaders were now talking about allocating a cemetery for victims to be buried.
Kamuren Junior, a local, accused the area MP of missing the point in addressing the persistent insecurity.
“A memorial park for victims of banditry? This message is not good for the affected families. It might lead to more killings,” he said, terming the MP’s sentiments weird.
“The MP should come up with a solution to ending banditry because offering land for the cemetery is not a solution. He should go back to the podium and retract his statement,” a furious Kamuren, who recently lost a relative to banditry, said.
Locals say compensation of victims can be done in many ways, and data can be captured through local chiefs.
Mr Makilap’s sentiments followed the killing of five people in Chemoe and Natan villages in separate attacks in Baringo North two weeks ago.
Boarded a motorcycle
In one raid, three family members including a two-year-old child were shot dead and three others seriously wounded along the volatile Yatya-Chemoe road. The victims had boarded a motorcycle from Marigat town in Baringo South heading to Chemoe village for an initiation ceremony when they were ambushed.
In a separate incident on the same day, bandits shot dead two people in Natan village, approximately eight kilometres from where the first incident happened.
The question of compensation for banditry victims was first mooted in 2016 when Parliament approved a motion sponsored by then Baringo North MP William Cheptumo - now Baringo Senator - that declared cattle rustling a national disaster.
Special fund
MPs gave the green light for the establishment of a special fund to pay all victims of cattle rustling and resettle those internally displaced by the menace in the North Rift.
Despite approval, the government never implemented it due to what the senator says was a lack of political goodwill.
Hot potato
It is for this reason that Mr Makilap has now suggested a different approach to the compensation hot potato.
When he met local leaders, provincial administration, and locals from the banditry-prone Chemoe village in his office over persistent attacks, governor Cheboi said the five people shot dead will be buried in a common grave.
“This way it will be possible to identify and document the criminal activities in this region, that borders on genocide because why are people of a certain community being killed indiscriminately including children and women, who traditionally are not killed even if there is any form of conflicts or warfare,” stated the county boss.
