Declare Mwingi insecurity national emergency, NLP urges

The National Liberal Party leader Dr Augustus Muli/HANDOUT

The National Liberal Party (NLP) has demanded for the declaration of the violence  in Mwingi and along the Mwingi–Garissa Highway a national emergency.

The party warned that Kenya risks sliding into inter‑community war if urgent action is not taken.

Party leader Dr Augustus Kyalo Muli sounded the alarm after fresh attacks at Ukasi allegedly left a child dead and passenger buses under siege.

Video footage circulating online shows windscreens smashed and terrified drivers fleeing as residents blocked the road with burning tyres. Hundreds of travellers were stranded following the incident.

This latest assault comes in the wake of a string of killings in Tseikuru’s Kwa Kamari village, where seven people were gunned down and hacked to death by bandits traveling in Probox vehicles.

Shops and a petrol station were torched, forcing villagers to hide in bushland. Police reports confirm a grim pattern; on March 29, a Kamba herdsman was killed; on March 30, four Somalis were slain in revenge; on April 25, seven Kambas were massacred in Kwa Kamari; and on April 28, the Ukasi bus attack claimed another young life.

In total, 14 Kenyans have died in just 30 days.

“This is a cycle of ethnic retaliation that threatens to become inter‑community war,” Muli said.

He demanded that Inspector General Douglas Kanja and Deputy Inspector General Eliud Lagat camp in Mwingi until all perpetrators are arrested.

“Calling for calm while killers roam free is surrender,” he added.

The NLP is calling for immediate deployment of National Police Reservists, GSU, and even the military if necessary, to secure the corridor and provide armed escorts for passenger buses.

The party insists the highway is an economic lifeline to northern Kenya, and its closure is strangling Ukambani.

Muli also urged the arrest of inciters, noting that the DCI has already detained a Garissa aspirant whose video allegedly fueled revenge attacks.

“Ethnic mobilization is terrorism,” the party declared.

To defuse tensions, NLP is pushing for a ceasefire summit within 48 hours, bringing together elders, clergy, and the National Cohesion and Integration Commission under heavy security in Mwingi.

“No community wins a blood feud,” the party said.

Muli appealed directly to residents: “Stoning a bus with children because of a pasture dispute is evil. Burning shops because a herder was killed is evil. You are not defending your people -you are destroying them.”

He linked the violence to decades of neglect, citing the post independence sessional paper that  declared 23 counties  “low‑potential” and starved them of roads, water, and schools.

“That is why youth throw stones instead of textbooks. That is why bandits find recruits,” Muli said, pointing to the NLP’s manifesto projects- Thwake Dam, Kitui Textiles, and TVET‑to‑factory programmes-as the only path to lasting peace.