Two Shot, Wounded in Cattle Rustling Incident in Meru

A 14-year-old boy is among two people who were shot and wounded during a cattle rustling incident in Kathelwa sub-location, Kangeta, Meru County.

The second victim is a 60-year-old man who was also in the village during the Sunday night attack.

More than 200 heads of cattle were stolen in the attack.

Police said the villagers were driving back their animals from the Nguthurune grazing area in Akongolo village when they were attacked by bandits.

The gang drove away with over 200 heads of cattle and goats belonging to about ten different people in the area.

It was then that the 14 year old boy and 60 year old man was shot and seriously wounded, police said.

The juvenile was taken to Maua Methodist Hospital for treatment but referred to Meru Teaching and Referral Hospital for further specialized treatment. Security personnel are on the ground tracking the robbed animals.

Cattle rustling incidents are on the rise in the area amid ongoing efforts to address the menace.

Most of the animals are stolen and driven to Samburu and Pokot areas before they are sold to other parts.

The area is among those affected by banditry amid ongoing operations.

Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure 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.

“Its impacts are severe. It deprives pastoral communities of their economic mainstay and aggravates the conditions of poverty in the rangelands, fuelling communal grievances and revenge attacks,” he said.

To dismantle the infrastructure of cattle rustlers and facilitators he said, the government is sustaining the war on banditry and its perpetrators, enablers, benefactors and beneficiaries by making banditry a painful venture, ensuring recovery of stolen livestock and rewarding facilitators of recoveries.