Kitui governor Julius Malombe and a Member of Parliament have differed on issuance of guns to locals with the governor maintaining that the move will heighten conflicts in the area.
Malombe said if the National government bowed to pressure from Mwingi Central MP Joe Mutambu and provide firearms to the vigilant youth groups the ongoing conflict between the nomadic herdsmen and the locals will persist.
Speaking in various spots in the volatile area on the border of Tana River and Kitui counties, the two leaders held divergent views over the decision by the Internal Security Cabinet secretary Joseph Nkaissery to issue guns to police reservists in the area in a bid to tame insecurity that has rocked the area in the recent past leaving five people dead.
Malombe said issuing guns to people is not a sure way of curbing crime instead ways should be sought to enable the warring communities to co-exits peacefully as the conflict is basically as a result of diminishing pasture and water.
”When you arm one group of people, the enemy will retaliate and the fight continues,” Malombe told a gathering in Mui over the weekend, adding that gun provision to locals has never been a sure way of ending conflict between warring communities.
He said the root cause of the conflict should be sought asserting that boundaries of the two counties should be properly defined since the herdsmen have virtually displaced locals from their villages leading to conflict.
