For years, the rugged borderlands of Marsabit and Isiolo counties have been the silent witnesses to a simmering security crisis.

Once driven by ideology, armed factions in the region had devolved into a network of crime and lawlessness.

On February 3, the Kenyan government launched “Operation Ondoa Jangili”, a large-scale security offensive aimed at dismantling the remnants of the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), whose activities had expanded beyond insurgency into organised crime.