It’s December. It’s strangely silent in Kerio Valley, which is always synonymous with gunshots as bandits raid villages for livestock.
Life in the once feared area, Kerio seems to have changed.
The valley is strangely silent and life in the larger Kerio Valley belt seems to have completely changed.
A time like this a year ago, gunshots would be renting the air, with burials being conducted almost every weekend as the merciless bandits ran amok.
According to research findings by the National Crime Research Centre titled: ‘Managing the Dangerous Drift in Livestock Rustling and Banditry in Kenya’, most livestock rustling and banditry are likely to occur in the months of November and December.
The report outlines livestock rustling and banditry as among the leading crime cases in the three counties of Baringo, Elgeyo Marakwet and West Pokot, averaging 37 per cent.
The animosity between the three neighboring communities of Pokot, Tugen and Marakwet had hit the highest level and nowhere was safe even places of worship which are considered sacred places.
“We used to attend burials every weekend. Fridays had been reserved to collect bodies at Iten County Referral Hospital. We had no peace. Every time someone from Kerio Valley called me, it was to report a banditry incident,” says Elgeyo Marakwet Governor Wisley Rotich.
“I am happy this is no longer the case. I pray that peace is maintained,” he said.
Several schools had been closed while those still running had seen student numbers plummet as the bandits did not spare even school-going children.
According to the culture of the three communities, women and children were often spared in wars. It was an abomination to kill or injure them.
But it had gotten so bad that bandits did not spare them anymore.
“Children were perceived to be innocent while the women were believed to be the makers of the next generations,” says Bernard Chepkoiyo, a resident from Kotilial in Kerio Valley.
Two years ago, bandits sprayed bullets at a bus belonging to Mogil Secondary School at Chesuman area in Arror, killing driver Andrew Kosgei on the spot and injuring 13 students.
In the same year, bandits suspected to be from Tiaty gained entry and attacked students of St Benedicts Arror Girls.
They later staged a twin attack at Kapkobil and Arror injuring two. Liter and Cheptulel secondary schools on the border of Elgeyo Marakwet and West Pokot counties were the most affected with the latter shut for several months.
Chesegon, a once vibrant market, has remained deserted but the leadership of the three counties promised the market would be operationalised soon.
West Pokot Governor Simon Kachapin called on the national government to fast-track the construction of Chesongoch Technical Training College which borders the two counties.
“We have had discussions with my fellow governors Benjamin Cheboi and Wisley Rotich and we have agreed to talk to our people to end these senseless killings,” Kachapin said.
The large swathes of land in Ker - io Valley, according to Governor Rotich, should be converted to farms, not grazing fields, which he says will push for a change in the mindsets of the residents.
“We should stop thinking only about cows. In Elgeyo Marakwet, we have introduced crop cultivation. Right now, farmers are awaiting payments amounting to over Sh20 million from the sale of sorghum, nyota beans and we are soon introducing them to cotton.”
“We want to have a paradigm shift from livestock to crop production. We must change the mindsets of our people. They should know there is life outside livestock herding,” he added.
Bernard Chekoiyo is one such farmer who is now growing beans.
“For days now I have woken up to an unfamiliar silence. The absence of gunshots has allowed us to be in our farms. This is certainly a new dawn,” says Chepkoiyo as he tends his beans farm in Koitilial, Kerio Valley.
Chepkoiyo recalls how the area was completely deserted less than two years ago.
“Banditry had brought everything to a standstill. Cases of deaths associated with banditry were reported almost daily. We lost livestock and the fights resulted to several children dropping out of school.”
Swift action by the national government to send military to the region stabilised the area.
The military established three camps, with one in Todo and Sam - mu areas believed to be the bandits escape routes to Tiaty.
“We wrote to the national government requesting for the military camps and security roads to open the place. I am happy that it worked,” Rotich said.
Other interventions include establishment of Kerio Valley and Tiaty Subcounty to bring closer government services to the residents and compulsory enrolment of pupils into schools especially in Tiaty, where children are often introduced to guns at a young age.
Another military camp has also been established in Kamologon, a known hideout for bandits.
“We needed to change tact. Criminals had mastered the strategies the previous regimes used. For example, we used to have what they called a special district commissioner who was supposed to have an office in Chesongoch, but instead, lived in Kapsowar, more than 20 kilometres away,” said the three governors in a joint press statement.
