Tough legislation needed to stem cattle rustling

Evidence continues to mount that top politicians and businessmen with ties to security forces are linked to the decades-long wave of cattle rustling that has claimed thousands of lives. Along with it is a dangerous gun trade that continues to fuel insecurity in many parts of the country.

Some of the so-called ‘cattle warlords’ command armies of heavily armed youth whose job is to steal cattle or kill people, provoking Government officials to order disarmament raids in which even more thefts are reported.

As the new Inspector General of Police David Kimaiyo works to keep his pledge to rid the country of organised crime, he would do well to pay attention to how it has infiltrated and affected the workings of the force in the parts of the country where Government presence and civilian oversight are weakest. It is in these areas that police officers face the greatest temptations to indulge in corrupt activities or to turn a blind eye to crime.

And given the policy to rotate officers from one station to the next, bad habits picked up in remote stations where nobody is looking can easily spread across the organisation.

An investigation by The Standard On Saturday into the activities of cattle theft cartels in Samburu County has unearthed more proof of their devastating effect on pastoralism and policing.

Our reporters have found strong evidence, laid out elsewhere in this newspaper, that the stolen animals are fed into the nation’s pipeline of livestock products both for domestic consumption and export with the assistance or connivance of people in the security forces. The trade in stolen and confiscated animals has ballooned over the last 20 years into a massive black market sector in which demand leads to more and more large-scale livestock theft operations.

The violence that accompanies the cattle thefts leaves in its wake traumatised and poorer communities while enriching raiders, brokers, transporters and gun dealers.

The activities of cattle cartels in the lawless districts of northern Kenya have been described by aid agencies as “a low-level war that never ends”. With its instigators continuing to do business virtually unchallenged, however, this war is certain to get much worse and to affect not just those in pastoralist regions but also Kenyans elsewhere in terms of greater insecurity.

In 2010, the Kenya Human Rights Commission urged investigations into the role State officials and local politicians play in cattle rustling.

At the time, most of the victims of these attacks were residents of the Samburu, Turkana, Pokot, Trans-Nzoia, Marakwet, Isiolo, Marsabit, and Trans-Mara regions. But their number now includes many more Government officials and security personnel – largely due to the attack in Ndoto, Baragoi, several weeks ago.

Warlords have also been known to organise joint cattle raiding operations into Uganda, Sudan, and Ethiopia involving thousands of Kenyan warriors. Unless checked, this is certain to spiral into worse violence.

Changes to the law are necessary to help the fight against rustling.

As it stands, rustling is not recognised as a crime under the Penal code. Section 278 provides for a maximum sentence of 14 years for the theft of stock.

But there is clearly a big difference between the typical theft of, say, a few dairy cows and the industry-level thefts of thousands of beasts attended by ethnic clashes in which hundreds are killed.

Like robbery with violence, the latter should carry a stiffer sentence. The laws scattered across the Fire Arms Act (Cap 114), the Stock and Produce Theft Act (Cap 355), the Meat Control Act (Cap 356), the Branding of Stock Act (Cap 357) and the Hides, Skins and Leather Trade Act (Cap 359) need to be harmonised to make prosecution of the few rustlers and financiers that are caught in the act.

The Government has a duty to investigate claims that powerful State officials and businessmen are the key drivers of these crimes. We ignore this menace at our own peril.