The Dangers of Cattle Rustling Terrorism in the Kerio Valley

There is a developing brand of deadly terrorism in the Kerio Valley section of Baringo (Tiaty) and Elgeyo Marakwet (Marakwet East) counties out of violent cattle rustling activities. It is violent cattle rustling marred by serious disinformation by both local communities and government officials. This threat of cattle rustling terrorism has instilled fear among the local residents and has brought about standstill to development in the region.

Marakwet East and Tiaty sub-counties practise some form of violent cattle rustling using illegal small arms and light weapons, picking from an age-old cattle raiding tradition between the two communities. While there are witnessed vanishing herds in many regions of Kenya, demonstrating some steady transition into modern economy, there is a diametrically opposite development out of the Kerio Valley – cattle rustling terrorism. At the moment it is not clear how far it will go, hence the need to nip it in the bud.

Marakwet East is an economic embarrassment to Elgeyo Marakwet County, whereas Tiaty is an economic embarrassment to Baringo County. However, the leaders of the two sub-counties, especially their members of parliament, are proud individuals. One would have imagined them being demeaned by leading backward regions and so should be at the forefront of fighting cattle rustling terrorism through creative mobilization of their people through joint economic activities and people to people exchanges in such forums as church functions, economic and educational fairs.

It is on this account that I propose national and international sanctions against the members of parliament for Marakwet East and Tiaty Hon. David Kangogo Bowen and Hon. William Kassait Kamket for holding back their people from the much needed economic empowerment, thus compromising with the viability of and trickle-down benefits out of the county system of governance. They should shoulder the ultimate political responsibility for the developing cattle rustling terrorism in the Kerio Valley under their watch.

What is this developing cattle rustling terrorism? The residents of Tiaty depend on the Kerio River for watering their livestock and also for drawing drinking water out of improvised sand dams. The residents of Marawket East depend on the main Biretwo-Tot-Marich Pass Road for active mobility and commerce. The Marakwet cattle rustling terrorists keep ambushing innocent Pokot at the river point, killing them. The Pokot cattle rustling terrorists keep ambushing innocent Marakwet travellers at the main road, killing them, as exemplified by the recent killing of a clinical officer riding on a motorbike. However, the Pokot of Tiaty have paid the additional price of extreme marginalization, and lack of media coverage.

I have had an opportunity to interview both the Pokot and the Marakwet, having lived at the Kerio River between 2012 and 2016 at the Kipchumba Foundation educational settlement at Chepchoren at the border of Marakwet East and Tiaty. Since December 2018 I have managed to engage members of the two communities through social media where I made relevant observations until I published a book: Lessons for Economies in Transition: The Case of Elgeyo Marakwet County (EMC), Kenya (2019). I have scaled up those discussions these past a few days by enabling operationalization of Pokot-Marakwet social media groupings and by adding key Pokot leaders into a premier Elgeyo Marakwet County ideas forum on Whatsapp called EMC Agenda: SWOT Analysis.

While every one of the members of the discussion groups believed that the local police officers knew all the cattle rustling terrorists, it was difficult to ascertain the existence of such data in the hands of the local police. However, the participants strongly recommended empowerment of the National Police Reservists (NPR) by being paid some remuneration from local sources of finances such as Constituency Development Fund (CDF) and allocations to the affected wards. With political and community good will, the NPR should be able to cross the borders to pursue and arrest culprits like in the case of the Pokot and the Turkana counties. There is also some need to recruit more educated NPR and procure advanced security facilities such as night vision goggles and (armed) infrared surveillance drones, within the law.

The peacebuilding efforts between the Pokot and the Turkana, as spearheaded by the governors of West Pokot and Turkana counties, centred on political good will, empowerment of National Police Reservists (NPR), recruitment of peace ambassadors, and massive joint educational investments at the border areas. The Pokot-Marakwet peacebuilding suggestions included identifying and stopping the flow of illegal small arms and light weapons to the Kerio Valley, and borrowing from the northern Uganda case between the Pokot and the Karamojong, where communities were asked to surrender their illegal firearms in exchange for development through the Ministry for Karamoja Affairs.

There were also some suggestions such as adoption of modern livestock breeds, land demarcation, paddocking of grazing areas to create multi-layered barriers, allowing Pokot herders to graze on the vast abandoned Marakwet meadows at a fee, and prevention of the violent cattle rustling activities from degenerating into cattle rustling warlordism, perpetrated by organized armed militia, as there are enough illegal small arms and light weapons in the region to make it easy to form a highly capable fighting force.

Finally, there is need to mobilize the counties of Baringo, Elgeyo Marakwet and West Pokot to invest in joint development projects along the Kerio Valley in a bid to redirect their people into meaningful economic activities. The prevailing aloofness of duty bearers amid emerging cattle rustling terrorism should be punished for being a major encumbrance to the attainment of the goals of the county and national governments, and the aspirations of the people of Kenya. One way to do this is move the residents of the Kerio Valley to the nearest commercial centres by building low-cost houses for them, using locally available materials; ensuring that all local government officials who lie about the developing home-grown (cattle rustling) terrorism in the Kerio Valley should be dismissed forthwith.