Tension is building up in Turkwel and Chesegon areas of West Pokot County after suspected bandits killed one National Police Reservist.

The incident occurred in Chepkoiket, Takaywa Village in Kasei, North Pokot on Friday, January 26. The officer was patrolling Lonyangalem Primary School when he was ambushed by the bandits.

This comes barely two weeks after the Ministry of Interior deployed 205 National Police Reservists in West Pokot County to man its border points in hotspot areas.

Confirming the the incident, Ombolion Chief Joseph Korkimul said the security team is pursuing the bandits who are believed to be have migrated from Kaptir in the neighboring county of Turkana.

Korikimul also confirmed that on Thursday January 25, the bandits from the same area of Kaptir made an attempt to drive away unknown number of livestock.

However security officers got wind of the matter in time and moved with speed to rescue their animals and drive away the bandits.

“Yesterday, at about 3 pm, cattle thieves raided Suam village near the river where livestock were being grazed and threatened the shepherds and stole their livestock, but then our NPR reserve officers were informed of the incident and chased the thugs and then the thieves escaped and left the livestock.

“Now they came back and retaliated by killing the NPR,” the area chief added.

According to Korkimul, the ministry of Interior should consider adding more police reservists in the area to help in calming the tension and being able to keep away bandits.

This comes a day after Interior cabinet Secretary Prof Kithure Kindiki reorganized the deployment of the county commissioners, transferring 12 county commissioners, retaining 24 and recalling 5 the ministry’s headquarters.

Fresh bandit attacks come against the backdrop of a tussle between the judiciary and National Police Service Commission over deployment of 1,000 police officers on a peace-keeping mission in Haiti.