KENYA: Declare Insecurity National Disaster, Archbishop Okoth Urges

NAKURU NOVEMBER 28, 2014(CISA) -Catholic Justice and Peace Commission (CJPC) Chairman, Archbishop Zacchaeus Okoth has asked the government to declare the current state of insecurity in the county as national disaster.

In a statement titled “Kenya a mourning nation… Act now” issued during the commission’s annual planning meeting on Wednesday November 26 at St Mary’s Pastoral centre in Nakuru, Archbishop Okoth said that the government must regulate the sale and distribution of bullets within the country’s borders as an immediate measure to stop increasing insecurity.

He further urged the government to strategically position special military forces at border points to stem the flow of al–Shabaab militia into the country.

Archbishop Okoth was reacting following the killings of 28 people by al Shabaab on a Nairobi-bound bus in Arabiya area in Mandera County on Saturday November 22.

Elsewhere, The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) condemned the Mandera killings terming it “gross violation and a total disregard for the victims’ right to life as contained in Article 26 of the constitution of Kenya.”

“We implore the Government of Kenya to take immediate action and carry out adequate investigations with a view to prosecute the suspects of this heinous crime,” KNCHR Chairperson Kagwiria Mbogori said in a press statement sent to CISA November 26.

The rights group said that the state should consider national dialogue in handling security issues to enable citizen’s share their ideas on improving security in the country.

“We consider that security being a national issue the Government should as a priority convene a national dialogue on security that will provide a platform for citizens to make their contribution to measures that can be taken to ensure security as a right to all Kenyans,” said Mbogori.

 

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