NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 10 – Gunmen believed to be cattle rustlers shot and killed three herders in a village in Isiolo County.
Five other herders were injured in the two separate incidents, police said.
The first incident happened Sunday morning in Bojidare area where unknown number of bandits armed with assault rifles shot and killed two herders before stealing their 300 goats and cows.
Police said the two were shot and killed as they confronted the gang.
A team of police officers which responded there managed to recover all the cows.
Deputy Inspector General of Administration Police Gilbert Masengeli said three other villagers who were shot in the incident were rushed to hospital where they were admitted.
He added a team had been dispatched to the area to pursue the missing goats.
“Unfortunately we lost two people and three were injured. We are on the ground pursuing the attackers,” he said.
Masengeli flew to the area to access the situation on the ground ahead of more planned operations.
In Hola Bule area, another gang shot and killed a herder and managed to steal his 19 heads of cattle.
Two other people who included a police reservist were injured in the raid and were taken to hospital for treatment and discharged.
Police said they recovered all the stolen animals.
Masengeli said they had intensified operations in the area pursuing the bandits wrecking havoc.
Elsewhere in Waso area, Samburu County, two suspected bandits were shot and killed across River Waso area under Samburu East and a total of 211 heads of cattle recovered from them in a police operation.
Police said they were pursuing more bandits who escaped the Sunday morning raid.
Masengeli is leading an operation in the area.
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.
