Police officers recover 200 cows stolen in Isiolo

Police in Isiolo have recovered 200 cows out of the 400 stolen during Monday's attack at Matta Sathen village by bandits suspected to be from neighbouring counties.

A herder who was injured during the attack is nursing gunshot wounds in hospital.

County Commissioner Geoffrey Omoding said security had been beefed up in the area and that efforts were on to recover the remaining cattle.

“We have deployed enough officers to the area to beef up security and recover the remaining cows,” he said.

Mr Omoding announced that more than 100 National Police Reservists had been deployed to insecurity prone areas, including Kom Durte, Biliqo and Yamicha to help tame banditry. This is in addition to more than 100 others that were previously deployed.

“The three areas have over 60 NPRs to assist in responding to attacks and repulsing the attackers before police come in to reinforce their efforts,” the administrator said.

The stolen livestock are mostly ferried in trucks to markets in Nairobi.

More than 70 people have been killed, tens maimed and thousands of animals stolen in attacks in the county in the last seven months.

Three people were killed in two separate attacks in Kom two weeks ago with one of the incidents being retaliatory after a man ferrying lime was gunned down by suspected bandits from Samburu.

Security teams from Isiolo, Marsabit, Samburu and Meru on Tuesday met in efforts to strengthen partnerships in dealing with banditry along the borders.

The administrator lamented over what he termed as lack of support from their Samburu security counterparts in apprehending the criminals and recovering stolen animals.

“We have been assisting them arrest criminals from our side who raid in their county but they do not reciprocate. Thousands of animals stolen from Isiolo and driven towards Samburu are yet to be recovered,” he noted.