- The study covered the counties of Baringo, Elgeyo Marakwet, Isiolo, Kitui, Laikipia, Marsabit, Meru, Samburu, Turkana, West Pokot, Tana River, Kisumu and Nandi.
- The unique aspects of the crime include the commercialisation of livestock rustling and banditry, collapse or diminishing value for human life.
Image: SCREENGRAB
There is a collapse or diminishing value for human life as evidenced by the higher number of people injured and killed during livestock rustling and banditry, a study has shown.
The study by the National Crime Research Centre (NCRC) says that over 300 people have been killed since 2023, adding that there was increased use of terrorism-like violence and militarisation and the vitalisation of modern weaponry during such raids.
The study covered the counties of Baringo, Elgeyo Marakwet, Isiolo, Kitui, Laikipia, Marsabit, Meru, Samburu, Turkana, West Pokot, Tana River, Kisumu and Nandi.
Further analysis showed that different counties had their own unique aspects in the present-day raids they were experiencing.
The report titled-Managing the Dangerous Drift in Livestock Rustling and Banditry in Kenya was released in August 2024.
The unique aspects of the crime include the commercialisation of livestock rustling and banditry, collapse or diminishing value for human life as evidenced by the higher number of people injured and killed, increased and/or frequent raids, and the higher number of animals stolen.
The study further showed that the leading counties are Laikipia, West Pokot, Samburu, Meru, Elgeyo Marakwet, Isiolo, Turkana, Baringo and Marsabit.
Other unique aspects of banditry, according to the NCRC, are displacement of huge populations, use of vehicles and bodaboda in the transportation of stolen livestock and change from an ‘organised cultural sport’ to an ‘organised crime.’
Increased involvement of politicians in livestock rustling and banditry, utilisation of mobile phones and other technology in conducting such raids, and destruction of built infrastructure, including houses and schools.
The NCRC has also identified increased involvement of security/law enforcement officers, a declining ‘authority’ of the community elders over their youthful livestock raiders, aggression towards and target of women and children victims, use of livestock rustling and banditry as a tool for politicisation of territorial or land boundary disputes, and political competition and supremacy.
“There is also increased role of women in the perpetration of livestock rustling and banditry and use of such raids to contest against government programmes,” the NCRC report states.
The main drivers of the present-day raids have been identified as the commercialisation of livestock rustling and banditry, and the inability of the government to provide adequate security protection to vulnerable local communities.
Other drivers are proliferation of illegal small arms and light weapons, high levels of ignorance and illiteracy among the youthful population, economic and poverty vulnerability, historical ethnic and inter-community hostility, and competition over scarce natural and economic resources.
The proliferation of illegal small arms was, however, found not to be a driver in Kisumu and Nandi counties.
County-disaggregated data also showed that an inadequately regulated market for livestock-related products was a major driver of livestock rustling and banditry in all counties except in Nandi, Tana River, Kitui, and Turkana counties.
On the other hand, cycles of revenge were a major factor for livestock rustling and banditry in all the study counties except in Kisumu, Nandi, Baringo, Tana River and Meru.
In other counties apart from Kisumu, Nandi, Tana River, and Kitui, the raids were primarily fueled by the need to restock after loss of livestock during droughts.
Most sample respondents in all the counties except in Kisumu, Nandi, Tana River, Kitui and Turkana believed that livestock rustling and banditry were major factors of developmental marginalisation of the pastoral cluster regions.
According to the study NCRC, rustling has metamorphosed over time, with implications for change of tact in combating the present form of the menace.
Further, its complexity and threat to national security necessitate a multifaceted and multiagency approach that does not over-prioritise the current militarisation and policing of the problem, whose success has been sluggish.
NCRC has recommended enhanced climate-smart livestock-specific development programmes aimed at improving livestock health and survival in the pastoral cluster through enhanced livestock development extension services.
Other mitigations include improved security and regulation of the livestock sector, which is facilitated by well-established databases of livestock activities in the affected areas and line with the National Livestock Policy.
Instituting deliberate measures to address marginalisation and underdevelopment of pastoralist regions, especially through well-articulated County Integrated Development Plans (CIDPs), was also proposed.
Other recommendations include a deliberate programme for improved and incentivised access to literacy and formal education by the boy-child in pastoralist regions.
Reports show that the move will be a paradigm shift from a predominantly state-dominated security to a community security-based intervention and approach founded on the Community Asset Management (CAM) principles that emphasize building and enhancing collaboration, and an enhanced programme for building and strengthening Kenya’s national conscience and ethos in the pastoralist regions.