A mission to recover stolen cows turned tragedy when a police officer was shot and killed in a shootout with bandits in Acher’s area, Samburu County.
The incident happened on Christmas Day as a team of police officers tried to recover a herd of cattle that had been stolen from Mutuati area, Meru County, police said.
Constable Victor Kosgey of General Service Unit died on the spot after being struck in the head with a high caliber bullet.
His colleagues said the bullet entered upper side of his eye and burst his rear skull killing him.
He was in the company of other GSU officers who had been sent to trace and recover about 100 cows that had been stolen earlier on from Mutuati.
During the clash, five police vehicles were hit and damaged by the bandits, police said.
Police said the bandits who struck as the team was driving off with some of the recovered animals engaged them in a shootout that lasted more than two hours.
A team of police together with reservists officers from Isiolo and Samburu Counties were following footprints of cows stolen from Mutuati of Meru county.
Police said at about 1 pm while at Ntilal area within Laresoro the footprints of the wanted cows got mixed with others in the area.
They did not realize this was a trick by the gunmen behind the attack.
On further search, the patrol teams managed to find 38 cows grazing with four of them having markings identical with the ones which had been stolen from Mutuati while others having faded fresh markings.
The team managed to recover and decided to drive all 38 cows to the station for sorting out.
And as the team was driving the cows back to Archer’s post police station and while at about three kilometers from the scene of recovery , they encountered an ambush where a shootout ensued.
This led to the death of the officer. The recovered cows escaped into the village as the officers retreated.
The body of the slain officer was recovered and taken to Kenyatta University Mortuary.
One suspect who was grazing the cows was arrested.
This is the latest such incident in the area amid an operation to address the menace.
An operation has been mounted in the area to get the attackers, police said.
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