Amesema sirkal inajua the cartels who are responsible for the rustling in north rift. Eti rustlers wanalipwa 7k per cow they bring to the cartels and the cows then transported to dagoretti slaughter house and sold for up to 100k.
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Former Rift Valley Regional Commissioner George Natembeya has detailed the complexities that define the banditry menace in the Kenyan North and how top government officials and known politicians have frustrated the war against the criminal activities in the troubled region.
Politicians, who are known, according to the former Rift Valley Commissioner who served for three years in the position, were the main beneficiaries of the bandit activities that have claimed hundreds of lives over the years.
The former Rift Valley regional administrator said known politicians were supplying the criminals with weapons and ammunition, in the disguise of checking on their livestock.
According to former Rift RC, 70 percent of the meat consumed by Kenyans living in Nakuru and Nairobi comes from cattle rustling in commercialised banditry.
“The meat you eat on your plates in Nakuru and Nairobi, 70 percent of it is from these criminal activities. The bandits are paid a paltry Sh7,000 per head, with the same being sold for up to Sh100,000,” he said.
He explained that the cattle raided from the troubled region is transported at night to markets in Nairobi- particularly Dagoreti, yet the law says livestock should not be transported at night.
“Yet the roads are manned by police officers. They have pocketed all those people. That’s why Kenyans wonder where the stolen livestock goes. It is not an easy war,” he stated.
“By the time I was the RC, we had a full list of individuals who had invaded Laikipia Nature Conservancy with illegal grazing, where lives and property were lost. Some of the high-ranking individuals in the military, police, Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), and politicians among others were named. No action was taken against them,” he said.
It is on this premise, Mr Natembeya observed, that led to the failed operation to flush out illegal herders and bandits who had invaded the conservancies.
“It was frustrating when we gave out the coordinates to the pilots to carry out bombing on specific areas where bandits were, they were diverted elsewhere. Say we gave the aerial cover team North coordinates because the bandits were there, they dropped the bombs in the East or South directions. This is how banditry and cattle rustling has thrived because of protection by powerful individuals,” he said.
“These people are bolder than Al-Shabaab. They set up traps and ambush police officers, they shoot and kill them, take the guns and ammunition, and go with them,” he said.
“They attack even at 10 am and raid livestock while shooting, these are guys who will go through a GSU camp and demand to be given njugu (ammunition) and even seize guns. I have witnessed these things and it is not a joke. Until the government forcefully disarms these people, nothing will change,” he said.