Matiang’i: This is how I will deal with Wakali Kwanza

Interior minister Fred Matiang’i says he will pitch camp in Kenya’s Coast “a better part of next week” to supervise security operations in the region.

The cabinet secretary’s remarks come on the back of a Monday attack of Bamburi residents by the outlawed Wakali Kwanza gang, which randomly slashed and injured at least 15 people.

Matiang’i says the force that security officers will apply on the gang, among other criminal groupings, will be “unprecedented”.

The minister says the outlawed groups are being assembled by politicians “in the name of political mobilisation”.

Matiang’i made those remarks in Nyeri County on Thursday, August 8, when he met leaders and top security officers from the area.

“Under the guise of political mobilisation, we are seeing possible signs of attempts or efforts to revive or recreate criminal gangs. Not just here in the Central part of the country, but the rest of Kenya. What is going on in the Coast region is a feature of that,” said the Interior CS.

“I want to assure the people of Kenya that we are prepared to deal with that. In fact, I am going to spend a good part of my time next week in Coast region because of these issues,” said Matiang’i, adding: “We are going to apply unprecedented pressure on these groups. We will not play around with the lives of our people.”

-Terrorist groups-

The minister, in his speech, said the security department has received intelligence that a section of youth from Nyeri, who crossed the border into Somalia, have returned to the Central Kenya region, and are mobilising local young people to join them in planning terror activities.

“There is a feature about this part of the country that I would like to talk about today. A good number of our young people who may have gone to Somalia or other places may have come back and we have suspicions that there are some activities going on in this area that have the likeness of terrorists trying to mobilise,” said the minister.

“We are aware, and we are tracing some places here. I urge the chiefs and assistant chiefs to identify families whose children crossed the northern Kenya border. Upon mapping those families out, they should share that information with us,” said Matiang’i.

“From the information we have and the evidence that we have, we are tracing some suspicious activities in some parts of rural Kenya or rural towns like Nyeri,” he said.

Besides meeting the local security apparatus, the CS was in Nyeri to launch two security facilities in Kieni and Tetu areas.

The functions were attended by, among others, ICT minister Joe Mucheru, area governor Mutahi Kahiga, his deputy Caroline Karugu, Inspector General of Police Hillary Mutyambai, area senator Ephraim Maina and local MPs.