- Police said a wanted gunman identified as Tormok Loitasiwa from Namakat area was killed in the drama.
- The other about seven gunmen managed to escape in the drama.
A wanted leading cattle rustler has been shot and killed during a confrontation with police in Alale, West Pokot county.
Police said they recovered 35 goats which had been stolen from Ombolion in the Saturday evening drama.
residents raised an alarm saying the gunmen had raided their village.
This prompted police and members of the National Police Reserve to respond to the scene sparking a shootout.
Police said a wanted gunman identified as Tormok Loitasiwa from Namakat was killed in the drama.
The other about seven gunmen managed to escape.
The body was moved to Kapenguria County Hospital Mortuary pending autopsy and other processes.
Police said there has been enhanced operation in the area to tame cases of attacks by bandits.
The area is among those under police operation to recover illegal weapons.
The operation Komesha Uhalifu North Rift involves multi agency teams covering various counties to tame cattle rustling.
It targets Baringo, West Pokot, Turkana, Samburu, Marsabit and Isiolo counties.
Besides retributive reaction, strategic investment and sustainable development have also taken a prominent place among the government’s planned crime control interventions for Kenya’s Northern frontier and the Kerio Valley belt.
Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki said, the long-term vision is to empower the communities to actively take part in the war against animal rustling and undertake legitimate nation-building activities.
The CS 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.
He said plans to distribute subsidised agricultural inputs and extension services to area residents in a bid to revive farming activities as a source of livelihood.
“We are coming to dismantle not only the criminals themselves but also to bring down the entire chain that has been the cattle and livestock rustling industry,” he said.
On Friday, president William Ruto said the government is determined to change the face of Kerio Valley and other parts of Kenya that have for long been hard-hit by banditry and other forms of insecurity.
He said they will change the face of Tiaty, Baringo County, other regions in Kerio Valley and all marginalised areas so that all children can access equal opportunities.
“Our plan is to invest in these regions so that Kenya moves forward uniformly," he said. Ruto cited the investment in the Silale geothermal project, saying it will create employment for the youth and change the lifestyle of the local people.