Suguta Valley is every law enforcer’s nightmare

By JOE KIARIE

Banditry and cattle rustling continue to thrive in norther parts of Kenya because only locals can cope with the region’s inhospitable environment.

Police officers deployed to the lawless border regions between Turkana and Samburu counties say Suguta Valley, where 42 police officers were killed last weekend, is just one of the deadly dens into which they dare not enter.

Harsh terrain

From the heights of the rugged Mount Nyiro Forest to the depths of the oxygen-deprived Suguta Valley and the adjacent Terter and Loshotom plains, the region presents a formidable challenge to outsiders. Cattle rustlers from the Pokot, Turkana and Samburu communities know this and, for decades, have guided stolen livestock into three dreaded havens from which they can suppress even the most daring of police recovery missions. Officers must depend on local warriors to navigate and survive the harsh terrain.

For starters, the varied landscape of the larger Samburu is cruel to the tender footed. The lava plains are a dusty and unforgiving land speckled with broken volcanic rocks, thorn scrubs and sun bleached bones. Sand filled dunes dot the numerous steep hills in the area. Remote administrative centres such as Marti and Baragoi in the heart of the barren Elbarta plains are 40 kilometres apart. Only a few red-robed herders and their livestock can be spotted as testament of life in between.

It is in the nearby hideouts where death lurks. The Suguta Valley, an arid part of the Great Rift Valley directly south of Lake Turkana, is distinctive as a natural death trap that would terrify even the best trained of modern militaries. Reckoned to be one of the hottest places on earth, it serves as a dreaded hideout for Pokot and Turkana raiders. At the heart of the valley, annual temperatures average 50°C, just eight degrees short of Libya’s notorious el Azizia plain.

Possibilities of death

While the rugged terrain around the valley is only accessible by foot, the inside is a nightmare — it consists of dry and rocky hills, depressions, salt lakes, lava fields and volcanic cones. Oxygen levels are believed to decrease as one moves to the centre, not to mention the numerous poisonous snakes that inhabit Suguta. This cocktail of features make death a real possibility. The Terter and Loshotom plains in the neighbouring Nachola location have almost similarly harsh conditions and are predominantly used as hideouts by Turkana warriors.

Charles Ketheka, who has for long coordinated police operations in the valley as a DO and later as a DC, says the Suguta is every law enforcer’s nightmare.

“With a very rough terrain and no roads, police officers usually have to trek for very long distances in the heat to the enter the valley. Once inside, decreasing oxygen makes one feel like they are suffocating. Most of the water inside here is also poisonous,” says Mr Ketheka, now the Nandi North DC.

Bandits’ strategy

After cattle raids, the bandits, who always outnumber the police, capitalise on delays as police await reinforcements and the difficulty in accessing the valley, to drift deep inside.

“They are much used to the harsh conditions and terrain and once in there, it is always perilous for police officers to continue with pursuit. If the police get in, the bandits also summon reinforcements and lay ambush in strategic points near the only entry point,” he says. The bandits here are believed to be armed with illegally acquired AK-47, G-3 and the superior M-16 rifles.

Consequently, it is only in September last year that police made the first ever recovery of livestock in Suguta Valley. Amid heavy tension in Baragoi, hundreds of security officers pursued Pokot bandits shallowly into the valley and recovered cattle stolen from a Samburu village. The Pokot are among the most aggressive and dreaded cattle rustlers and their raids often result in fatalities.

“This was a major breakthrough since it had never happened before,” Samburu North DC Jim Njoka said of the raid when contacted by The Standard On Saturday just after the recovery. He described Suguta as a valley of death.

Valley to hell

One junior officer recently involved in an operation in Suguta equates the valley to hell.

“I once collapsed out there and was carried by my colleagues back to the camp. In there, one cannot breathe naturally and it’s too hot. I have seen water almost boil in a bottle and while shoe soles melt. A lot of officers have been carried on others’ backs for kilometres from the valley into hospitals, and some to mortuaries,” he said.

To the northeast of the Suguta Valley is Mount Nyiro Forest, a den used by Samburu raiders and which police equally dread. Encircled by Samburu villages, it has traditionally been regarded a ‘holy mountain’ by the community, which at times shelter there when the conflict with their next-door neighbours — the Turkana — escalates, or during drought.