Kenya’s president wants the God squad to help rid his country of bandits. William Ruto says violence in the volatile Rift Valley should be tackled by Bible-thumping missionaries. He was speaking at a Presbyterian Church service and reckons the holy approach might succeed where police have failed in taming unconverted criminals.
However, the commander-in-chief has come in for plenty of stick. Kenyans on X (formerly Twitter) mocked his idea, saying the East African nation might as well send missionaries to Haiti to tackle the Caribbean nation’s gang problem. Others joked Kenya needs clergymen posted on major highways to curb a spike in road accidents that have killed 1,189 in the first quarter of 2024 alone.
Northern Kenya has been mired by banditry and cattle rustling for decades, despite numerous security operations in the region. Critics say the arid area has been marginalised by successive administrations since independence. It’s also easy for people to get their hands on Illegal weapons across porous borders from conflicts raging in South Sudan, Somalia and Ethiopia.