IT IS SAFE TO SLEEP IN THE STREET OF WAJIR AND EVEN DO REVISION FOR YOUR UPCOMING SEMESTER EXAMS

BY ADOW JUBAT -  IN WAJIR

                               Devulotion at Work: Illuminated Streets in Wajir at night pic by Jubat

Wajir, a dust and a sandy town in North-Eastern region has seen the brunt of past terror attacks and vicious circles of insecurity incidents for the last few years and this has forced the county administration to put counter insecurity measures in place.

And the measures to fight back insecurity in the semi- Arid border town came in form of tapping into the available natural resource- the scorching sun.

Wajir county government established 150 solar street lights and ten stadium flood lights to light up the town. The lighting exercise also targeted the head quarters of all the sub-counties.

“We have erected the street lights and the flood light posts in the areas that were targeted during the recent attacks,” said Wajir Governor Ahmed Abdullahi yesterday while addressing the media in Wajir on Monday.

Governor Abdullahi said incidents of insecurity reported in the County mainly in Wajir town has drastically nosedived courtesy of the street lights project which saw the illumination of the towns making difficult for criminals to discretely carry out their criminal activities.

“Since the lighting of our streets through the installation of solar powered street lights, cases of criminal activities and terror attacks which has been a rampant in the past has significantly gone down giving the residents the peace and the confidence to go about their nocturnal legal business without any fear for their lives or safety of their property”, He noted.

The governor added “The reported cases of burglary break-ins into business premises and terror attacks that cost lives and millions in loss in business to the traders in the County have meaningfully gone. The project has also improved profit margins for small scale traders particularly women selling tea and other goods to night travelers along streets corridors”,

Abdullahi said the project which was also involved in clean up shanty structures clogging along the major roads in the town has further improve security since the informal structures has helped the criminals to dodge or carry out their attacks unnoticed by the security agents.

Residents who welcomed the street lighting project urged the county government to erect some more lighting poles along dark alleys since it can be used by people driven by ill motives of hurting or stealing from others.

“Our shops now remain open almost until mid night. Previously Wajir has been a ghost town by the fall of the dusk since nobody trust the other person on the street at night for fear of terror attacks,” Observed Halima Salat, a shopkeeper along the busy airport road.

Muthoni Mwende a fast food attendant at a local hotel believes the street lights have not only boosted security but confidence among her customers who frequent her joint at night.

“Our customers are largely civil servants from other parts of the region, who has been the major targets of most terror explosions in the past. The fear of been caught in a terror attacks has forced them to remain indoors and this has affected our business, however the lighting up of the town we are now doing booming busines.

“Every time the main power goes off, attacks use to happen but now the solar street lights are lighting up these areas and we are less concerned about a power outage,” said she added.

 Mwende who witnessed several of those attacks says now the perpetrators of these criminal actions cannot hide anywhere because the makeshifts along the roads have been cleared and the streets have been lighted up by the County administration.