Herder shot dead in attempted animals robbery in Samburu

In Samburu County's Noltipo area, a herder was shot and killed in a raid by armed bandits on Saturday.

The attackers made off with 100 goats before police were notified and launched a recovery operation.

After several hours, officers managed to intercept the animals in the Mbogor area of Loruko.

The gang fled, abandoning the livestock, which police returned to Noltipo Manyatta.

The slain herder, identified as Ntinigwa Lepatoye, was reportedly killed while attempting to protect the animals during the raid, which took place in a remote, forested area difficult for police to access.

This remote location complicated the retrieval of his body, delaying transport to the mortuary. The incident has left local residents concerned about potential retaliatory attacks.

Elsewhere in Kiptunga forest, Njoro, Nakuru County, police and forest guards launched an operation targeting herders and arrested seven of them.

The team also recovered over 500 livestock in efforts to drive away invaders from the forest.

This followed complaints the herders were destroying the forest. The operation will be spread to other forests in the area, police said.

Cases of cattle rustling have been on slow decrease due to operations mounted by security agencies. Deputy President Kithure Kindiki who is the immediate former interior Cabinet Secretary has been leading the operations in the area vowing to end the menace.

Kindiki said cattle rustling in Northern Kenya has over the years become an organised criminal enterprise responsible for deaths, poverty and displacement.

“Its impacts are severe. It deprives pastoral communities of their economic mainstay and aggravates the conditions of poverty in the rangelands, fuelling communal grievances and revenge attacks,” he said.

To dismantle the infrastructure of cattle rustlers and facilitators he said, the government is sustaining the war on banditry and its perpetrators, enablers, benefactors and beneficiaries by making banditry a painful venture, ensuring recovery of stolen livestock and rewarding facilitators of recoveries.

The most affected areas include parts of North Rift, Marsabit, Isiolo and Meru.