Bandits Kill Two Including Retired Cop in Samburu

A retired police officer was Sunday shot and killed by gunmen in a raid on homes in Samburu County.

He is among two people who were killed in separate raids, police said.

This is the latest such incident to happen in the area amid protests from locals on rising insecurity that has destabilized the region at large hence affecting development.

Gunmen are roaming there blocking and robbing motorists and attacking homes for animals.

Police said Aroi Lepokule, 63, was shot as he confronted gunmen who had raided his homestead and stole his 56 cows in Loosuk area.

This prompted a police operation in the area that saw all the stolen animals recovered.

His killing came hours after another herder had been killed earlier on in the same area.

The incident happened in Angata Nanyukie area, police said.

Police said gunmen raided Soit Pus and Nkorika areas and left with about nine cows before shooting a 30 year old man as he confronted them.

On February 25, Angata Nanyekie MCA Paul Leshimpiro was shot dead by suspected bandits at Soit Pus on Maralal-Baragoi Highway.

He was rushed to Morijo Dispensary where he succumbed to gunshot wounds, police said.

This prompted protests by locals led by all the Maa governors who called on the government to take action to stop the gangs.

Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki flew to the area on Tuesday and said other forms of organised crime, the fight against livestock rustlers and violent bandits in Northern Kenya requires unyielding focus and determination.

He said Kenya’s security agencies, local communities, and all interlocutors in the peace and security space must stay the course, periodically amend the strategic and tactical interventions for the suppression of this persistent vice.

“A year after the Government deployed a permanent operation to defeat the decades-old organised crime against the people of Kenya, time has come to change the operational interventions to seal the remaining gaps and secure the Kenya of the North.”

“As a prelude to new security measures to be announced next week to address pockets of insecurity within the Northern Rangelands, held a routine operational review with Samburu County Security agency heads and Operation Maliza Uhalifu field commanders of formed up units along the Malaso Valley, at Maralal, Samburu County,” he said.

Kindiki has been leading the operations in the area vowing to end the menace.

Kindiki said cattle rustling in Northern Kenya has over the years become an organised criminal enterprise responsible for deaths, poverty and displacement.