This is not right.i cant believe that the government cannot stop this forever

God help Kenya

so disturbing.

man u r courageous, pole for all wat u went through.

Police should now resize their big bellys....This barbeque(nyama choma) issue and some beer then sleeping is making them lazy and unfit!Beer as a drug makes one dehydrated and in areas like Turkana you cannot make it with the heat involved.......Gym!

The inability by Government to project power and rule of law not just to all Kenyans but also to ALL parts of Kenya should be more worrying than any unresolved issues surrounding ancient practices....what happens should the Turkana militia attack Nairobi

All this blah blah about the Baragoi massacre is a waste of time, whatever happened cant be reversed but it should work as a wake up call to the government and the people of Kenya about preparedness in any eventuality. If you train as a police or soldier and pass out officially it means that you are capable of dealing with all situations because the training does not take place in the streets of Nairobi, how come people are talking about the cops being young and not familiar to the terrain in Baragoi, what were the reservist for?coz they are the locals and familiar with the terrain they should have given an oversight into the operation and the commanders should have known better to ask for aerial surveillance before embarking on that dreadful mission. And sometimes in the battlefield if you feel you are outnumbered by the enemy, the best thing to do is retreat and reorganize yourself for a surprise attack or seek reinforcement, they saw it and decided to go ahead knowing very well that this band of misfits were armed and large in number and they weren't going to hand over the cattle on a silver plate. I feel for those who lost their lives in that attack but those who are in charge should also take responsibility politics aside, politicians don't get police or military training but the commanders do so the buck stops with Iteere if he knew about the operation.

The police Force should go for training in Jungle Welfare and be conversant in Map reading and this time not at Kiganjo but t a real Military training College. Their Jungle knowledge is poor and what ever they learned Ten years ago is forgotten and never under rate even a boy with a bow because he armed himself to kill you.

terrible....... poleni

Lets as one question if you guys really understand the real situation on the ground if these officers had called for help who do you think would have come to their
aid????.....NOBODY because am sure they had their all out there, cant we have a system where in such operation these guys can get military air support lets share what we have and going by the terrain of the area its the only way to cover such vast area

First l would like to thank Honorably all the police and those who hero's who fell on the ungrateful day, but l would not go without saying one thing ,go to the banks and just check those officers who stand watch how prepared they are ,some can even read a newspaper on duty ,what if thugs were to strike.What l want to say is these guys need to constantly be trained on situational awareness

What training does one gets to be police reservist? Was this young man and others like him placed in harms way without proper training? Are these youngmen sitting ducks collateral damage nobody would miss? Having seen action can he now be fast tracked to join police force? Does the term homeguard have the negative connotation like the homeguards of the MAUMAU era?

Cant wait the actual facts about this case, Not just what the Media is controlling.

it is a simple thing and it appeared from the beginning that the intelligence wing of our security aparatus is poorly trained and poorly equiped. world over before ambushing any place a serious intelligence work must be carried out and every detail must be clearly anaylsed with microscope that it leaves no doubt on the succes of the operation. It is not just an issue of sending officers to an area withour clear policy. I think the KDF work in Somali should be a class room for the kenya police.

These are the kind of horror stories that discourage many young men and women from joining the police force.

The Biggest mistake our police make is failure to use battle wits... they did not plan at all and they acted like village men attacking other village men in a crowd. They should have strategised like the KDF in Somalia. Anyway may their souls rest in peace and their families be comforted by Jehovah. It should a BIG LESSON as we head towards Police reforms.

This is sad but how comes this police did not shoot back and atleast kill a couple of this busters.they would have died trying. i understand the could not re wremuch them but. since there was no way out rather die trying.

after all this had taken place, the good head of police, after ensuring that two police choppers (and not less), were good for the trip (that took about two days), then headed to baragoi to get a little sun tan......i believe he must've changed choppers at isiolo or somewhere. And so as not to besmirch his gleaming whirly birds, no such thing as the grim job of ferrying of bodies back to Nairobi could even be considered on his return trip. There will be no such thing as honouring the fallen cops with any ostentatious ceremony, nooo. That is reserved for ministers and their assistants! Such is how low we've come as a nation.......

This is sad but how comes this police did not shoot back and atleast kill a couple of this busters.they would have died trying. i understand the could not re wremuch them but. since there was no way out rather die trying.

This testimony proves that: 1. Rustlers have lost fear of the government forces; 2. Police officers/cadets are a really ill-treated bunch; and 3. It is considered 'normal' behavior in northern Kenya for opposing tribes to kill each other over cattle.
SOLUTION: Ban the nomadic way of life - this sector needs strict controls - government-controlled ranching and abattoir systems for the northern arid regions is the way to go. They need a total culture change to bring lasting peace and benefits for all.

Anti-stock theft police should be trained in those areas having harsh climatic conditions and prone to cattle rustling. And again most of the Anti-stock police should be recruited from the same communities that is still practising cattle rustling.

Some take centuries to understand they are saying kemboi to resign and he lost his live,i guess those who are not comprehending the story are graduates of nyakemincha high school

For sure the blame lies entirely on the Police. they acted as if they have not been train in defense management. the best and the only option at that particular time was to form a round defense to hold the attackers at bay while waiting for reinforcement to arrive...

this is the way we always beat off Turkanas and Karimojong worriers when we are out numbered... to say the commander does not know the terrain and what have you, does not add up... well train Askaris are suppose to fight in any condition which they are caught in...

A polite request to everyone please read the article on DAILY NATION on the genetically modified maize ban. Please,i am requesting kindly, this is a major environmental / health issue that concerns all kenyans...please. It's just a click on the front page

We are not discussing about food here.

mnjoro I put it up because i feel it's important for us to care about the food we eat and above all the environement we live in. I think the recent sukuma wiki scandal shocked many people( with researchers finding human waste remains as well as heavy metal present in sukuma wiki) Though sukuma wiki are not OGM's,it just shows that if we collectively continue to ignore environemental issues we have a catastrophy waiting to happen. If you have time,just click and read the article. It's just as important as the security issues facing the country

It seems to me from this reservist's story that they were not prepared to battle the rustlers if it came to that.He just says they ran away there is no where he says they returned fire.Its like they were going to drink tea with these criminals and politely ask them to return the cattle.You have to have a frontline mindset.However, my condolences to the police officers families.The fact of the matter is that these criminals need to be arrested for theft and murder of not only fellow citizens but law enforcement people.I hope that this the whole issue is not being swept under the carpet like it never happened and the culprits go unpunished..Something like this should never be allowed to happen again

400 heavily armed militias!!! Those mps making noise should be interrogated further as this militias seems very well trained and equiped. KDF should deal with them hard.

So unreal, no aerial support, no rescue plan, seems even no communication tools to call for help from the base, more than 12 hrs after the attack this kids were being slaughtered there in the valley while their bosses were sleeping or enjoying themselves in the big towns with no idea of what is happening to their forces and still surprise surprise no one have the brain of taking responsibility. Even common sense why risk more 100 lives for only 450 cattle. I mean what the real value of this animals.

Gosh! Ati 400 armed bandits stealing 500 heads of cattle? Meaning each stole 1.25, with a gun? This is a declaration of war on Serikali ya Nairobi.

Sorry!

Most of the police officers died because they did not have the stamina
to flee. “They were exhausted by the time they reached the manyatta if the enemy and they could not escape.”...another blind n terrible mistake but lesson learnt!

Police are not trained to fight marathon battles. They are trained for splint ones like "......the thugs opened fire to my boys, my boys responded fire, three thugs were gunned down, five escaped and we recovered one ceska pistol and a machete....."

Ati who killed who?I think you may ask inspector muala the actor now!

Mother of all blunders

Police in Kenya are extremely casual. The elite squad ( esp. GSU recce co, guards to the president and VIPs) are the only exception. A keen observer would note in horror a dangerous lack of aggressive vigilance, or lack of alertness and awareness to their surroundings, when they are on patrols or on sentry posts. I have seen pairs of policemen cross streets or mingle with crowds, going about chatting and loosely dangling rifles without caring even an occasional glance to who's is behind them. They could draw a lot of very important lessons from their counterparts in our neighboring states, like Ethiopia and Rwanda (ever heard of any explosions in these countries?), you get a sense that someone is watching you when around them (a bit uncomfortable sometimes), but this is what it takes to guarantee security for citizens.

167 police and reservists went for the security operation, 42 died....but there is only scanty information about the fate of the rest 125. The fact that the govt decided to deploy the military to Baragoi is an indicator that the deaths/casualty may be much higher than the reported 42 deaths. Everyone police officer and reservist who went for the security operation in Bargoi deserve to be recognized by being accounted for. Thus so far, there are many unanswered questions about this security operation.

Never dismiss your instincts, if at first you think your commander looks un-sure ask hard questions, if you think your driver looks drunk, ask hard questions, if you think the guy selling to you land is a conman, ask hard questions, always follow up your instincts with hard questions, this reservist was lucky he lived, but for the rest who allowed the commander to lead them, they are now dead in the wilderness.

Joab Serem-Juba: You see how this guys have eaten a lot. They could not have any stamina for fleeing as we are told.They must be those common fat guys...useless... and very interesting; Sorry then.

400 rustlers. Is there something wrong here or what. Organised crime carried out by 400 people at a go who think it is ok to rustle cattle. That could very easily be representative of the views of the communities they come from. It means this might be a norm in these areas. Perharps some intervention to change this mindset would do more good that confrontation.

it means this might be a norm in the area. Please, it is the norm. I once saw a high quality research paper surrounding the issue of culture based conflict in the Horn of Africa and, cattle rustling was cited as a major cause of conflict. The only problem, as identified by the researcher was that the govt has always assumed that it can fight the menace through warfare, yet the cattle rustling issue cannot be fought through gunbattle or any disarmament program, but through cultural approaches and new acculturation procedures. That is where the problem lies

May God grant the poor souls eternal peace,
It has now come to light.
Is it any wonder then, the word that transfer of officers to such areas
is viewed as punishment. Records has officers who opted to resign than
work in those parts of our country.
Somebody has to own up for making difficult lives of YOUNG AND PROMISING KENYANS. This guys had no backup of any kind, not even radios,(just send them).

May God grant the poor souls eternal peace,
It has now come to light. Is it any wonder then, the word that transfer of officers to such areas is viewed as punishment. Records has officers who opted to resign than work in those parts of our country.
Somebody has to own up for making difficult lives of YOUNG AND PROMISING KENYANS.

please urge the commandant of the police to be assigning the duty to those people with better experience of a particular field.

A colonel in the India army once gave me his business card. I love their motto- 'Victory or Death'. We console families of our fallen men in uniform.However, those in or planning to join our men and women in uniform should be willing to die for our motherland. Those getting in to extort bribes or boot-lick our politicians are in a wrong profession.

I really for the young men...never been there but I can understand the horror of facing death in the eye;its terrorizing to say the least.

The killings are very sad. But they are evidence that the Kenya Police Force is tactless, insensitive, shortsighted and naive.

"We were a total of 167(107 policemen and 60 reservists) it's only three three of us who survived".The government stated 42 policemen killed. What happened to 125 policemen?Can someone enlighten me?

I don't blame the commander. In some situations, you have seconds to make critical decisions. The commander didn't choose the men to go to battle with - he was given the inexperienced ones and he decided to include reservists who bring experience and terrain knowledge with them. Unfortunately it puts them at further risk as they are from an enemy tribe of the Turkana. Immediately shots rang out, the idea of scattering in different directions cost them. I'm sure experienced fighters would have looked for whatever cover was available and returned fire as they regroup. After a commander is felled, automatically the next senior officer takes over. When you are outnumbered as is the case, a tactical retreat would have led to fewer casualties. Retreat to a location of tactical advantage, set up defensive positions, catch a breath, reestablish communication with outside world...continue retreating cautiously to pick up point. Hii kukimbizwa in that heat non stop is not fair.

i feel sick,it shouldn't have happened but it has....