Parliament will investigate the booming meat business at the Kericho-Kisumu border

Violence has been rising along the Kericho-Kisumu border. (Photo:Courtesy)

By DENNIS ONYANGO

Kisumu, Kenya: Parliament will investigate the booming meat business at the Kericho-Kisumu border said to be fuelling cattle rustling and resulting to perennial violence in the region.

Members of the Parliamentary Committee on Security said they had learnt through investigations that meat business in Kisumu town is thriving through cattle rustling.

Speaking during a public forum in Nyakach, Kisumu County, they claimed there was a cartel in the meat trade comprising prominent businessmen and politicians drawn from the neighboring Kalenjin and Luo communities.

The committee will also probe politicians and traders adversely mentioned as instigators of clashes at the volatile region.

Yatta MP Francis Mwangangi told residents they were to blame for the clashes that recently rocked the region, leading to the death of at least six people and which left more than 900 people displaced.

More than five houses were also torched in the flare-ups.

“Have you asked yourself who the beneficiaries of cattle rustling are? Don’t you know it is the meat sold to you here in Kisumu?” he posed. The committee claimed the traders use the youth to effect the raid and ferry the stolen cattle to the butcheries owned by the entrepreneurs.

“The culprits are among you. They assist those in the business to make money at the expense of peace,” said Sirisia MP John Waluke. The team also wants police officers from the Luo and Kalenjin communities serving at the border to be transferred to ensure lasting peace.

They argued the previous peace efforts at the border had not borne fruit because some of the police officers seek immunity for culprits from their ethnic communities.

“This (police reshuffle) will bring impartiality in handling the security situation across the border,” said Lagdera MP Mohammed Shidiye.

Shidiye, who is the vice chairperson of the Asman Kamama-led committee put the area security organs on notice, warning them of serious consequences if they failed to deliver. “As a committee, we have the power to recommend that you are not fit for the job so that new officers who can ensure security of the area are brought,” he said.

Twenty killed

Nyakach MP Aduma Owuor supported the bid to restructure the police; saying more than 20 people had been killed in the last two years due to cattle rustling.

“There are bad elements within them (police), which must be disciplined for there to be peace,” he said. Among other members of the committee who attended the forum included Joseph Ndiege (Suna West) and Kimani Njuguna (Gatanga).

Narrating how they tamed cattle rustling at the Suna and Kuria border in Migori County, Mr Ndiege said there must be a crackdown on those in the meat business, saying it is the root course of the a cross-border conflict. Nyakach sub-county administrator Chaunga Wa Chaunga took the MPS through the history of cattle rustling in the area.

“It began around 1904 as a tradition. However, it has now turned into an economic activity due to poverty in the area and politicians are also taking advantage of the situation,” he said. Paul Onyango, who represented elders from Nyakach, said the Government should retain and even add the anti-stock theft police currently patrolling the area to curb the vice.

“We do not want to live through this painful life again. We have lost enough lives and we have witnessed enough destruction of property,” he said.

Although an uneasy calm has returned, with learning resuming in most of the schools that had been closed due to the skirmishes, the animosity harboured by the residents was exposed to the MPs.

The visit by the MPs came a day after a joint border meeting bringing together the top security organs, elders and clerics from the two communities, was conducted in a bid to restore peace.