At least 11 illegal guns were surrendered to the state in Tana River County in coastal Kenya in the past one week following a 60-day amnesty period, as the East African nation grapples with insecurity posed by militia groups in neighbouring conflict-ravaged Somalia
On January 12, the coast region security team directed two pastoralist communities – Orma and Degodia – to surrender all illegal guns after a vicious conflict in late 2025 over pasture and water, which resulted in at least 14 deaths.

The communities have responded with the surrender of 11 firearms. So far, the Degodia community has surrendered five firearms while the Orma community have surrendered six.

Speaking after receiving two more guns from the Orma community at Bangali Police Station, area Deputy County Commissioner Joseph Kipkorir thanked the elders from both communities for their continued support in the ongoing disarmament exercise.

Kipkorir urged the communities to take advantage of the 60-day amnesty and warned that the government will not hesitate to use force if not all guns are surrendered during the period.

“We have come here to receive two firearms that have been surrendered by the Orma community. We thank the elders for working tirelessly in ensuring that their people surrender the illegal guns in their possession following the directive to surrender them within 60 days,” Kipkorir said.

“This is a good beginning in this exercise and we want them to bring all the guns because we do not want a scenario where we will forcefully disarm them after the lapse of the amnesty,” he added.

At the same time, the DCC blamed the vast region and porous borders in their neighbouring areas for the influx of illegal guns and urged the public to depend on the government for security instead of acquiring illegal firearms.

“As you know, this region and the Bangali Sub-County is vast with porous borders. We believe that these guns get into the communities through smuggling, just like drugs and find themselves in the hands of our people,” he said.

Tana North DCC Ezekiel Amonde noted that the government has already profiled all owners of illegal firearms in the county and that they will have nowhere to hide if they fail to honour the amnesty deal.

“A time is coming when anyone who would not have surrendered their illegal firearms will have a lot of problems. I have led such an exercise in the Kerio Valley before and in this area too we will make sure that no single person owns an illegal gun,” Amonde warned.

“Do not let this amnesty expire. We have already profiled those who own these guns, we know them by their names and where they live. When this amnesty lapses, you will see because we have put in place a special unit to come for those firearms,” he added.

Daud Hajibonaya, an elder in the Orma community said that they would cooperate with the government in the disarmament process and ensure that peace is maintained in the county.

“We have already surrendered a total of six firearms from our community and we will continue to surrender them and maintain peace. Our community has never used guns, we used to have arrows and bows but because our neighbours came with guns, we had to find a way to have them too to protect ourselves,” Hajibonaya said.

Doyo Oloo, another elder, called on the government to protect the communities once all the illegal firearms are surrendered.

Oloo said that although people in the community may have acquired guns, most of them did not know how to use them and were only meant to scare the people who may want to harm them.

“These weapons we are surrendering, most of the people who bought them do not even know how to use them. We bought them for our protection and sometimes they are owned by a group of people and not just one individual because they are expensive,” he said.

“We want to ask the government, when a person surrenders a gun which is collectively owned by several people, please don’t go after the others because it’s the same gun they have been sharing in protecting themselves,” he added.

• A Tell Media / KNA report / By Erick Kyalo