Western Provincial Commissioner James ole Serian has said that armed robberies and assault cases are rampant in the region.

Serian said that there were guns in wrong hands which are being used by criminals to commit armed robberies.

“We hear of armed robberies where guns are used in Kakamega, Busia and Bungoma counties except for Vihiga County every other day,” said Serian.

He said that it is estimated that the region has between fifteen and sixteen armed robberies in a month.

Serian said the high crime rate was a result of the high levels of youth unemployment and rampant poverty in the area that needs to be addressed through development programmes.

He said that the provincial security and intelligence committee to which he is chairman will develop strategies to crackdown on the illegal firearms in the area.

He noted that residents in the region need to be educated on how to detect terrorists who may use the border points in Busia and Malaba to enhance security of the area.

“We need to educate people to know how terrorists can enter the country and not to threaten them,” he added.

He added that majority of residents do not know how grenades or Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) looks like to be able to detect them.

The administrator said that there were syndicates for smuggling aliens into the country and coffee out of the country across the porous borders between Kenya and Uganda.

 Serian was speaking when he met journalists in his office in Kakamega on Tuesday. He promised to share informational on matters of public concern with the media to help achieve a crime free environment.

Serian said that boda boda operators are a major challenge to security operations in the region.

He said he was still studying the sector so as to come up with mode of operation by the riders in the fight against crime.

Serian was moved to Western province as PC replacing Samuel Kilele who was transferred to Coast in a reshuffle early last month.