Reason for Laikipia conflict still a puzzle

Everything is unusual here: gory scenes of smoldering houses and wailing owners, empty schools, gun-wielding uniformed police officers, goat herders running helter-skelter, random people trying to stop the bleedings in their limbs, hungry children looking for their mothers…. everything.

Even the waters of steep-shouldered escarpments seem to be whispering, ‘all is not well’.

In just 14 days, raiders have killed seven people. Three of those, were police officers and one was a teenager. They have also torched more than 40 houses and at the nearby ranches, owners, mostly Kenyans of British origin, have been held hostage in their own homes.

The Ol Ari Nyiro, which means “The Place of Dark Springs”, and which is owned by Italian-born Kenyan author, environmental activist and conservationist Kuki Gallmann, has borne the brunt of it all.

In recent years, the 88,000-acre together with the neighbouring private ranches have been the epicentre of a violent struggle.

In motley of entitlement and suspicion, depending on who you interview, the hunter and the hunted are enslaved in fear.

Some say the bloody fights are caused by semi-nomadic herders targeting ranch owners, others say rival local communities are out to eject members of the other.

To some, the conflicts are politically motivated and link them to the 2022 general election. There are those that just say these attacks are carried out by bandits and desperate drought-stricken pastoralists seeking pasture.

The exact reason behind the attacks that started in Laikipia North and spread over to Laikipia West is a puzzle even to the government officials.

On Tuesday, Rift Valley Regional Coordinator George Natembeya said the truth needs to be unraveled.

“While our officers are using AK 47 and G3 rifles, the bandits are using M16 and other heavy rifles which are usually used by foreign armies which come for training in Kenya,” he said.

“We do not know how they get these heavy weapons.”

What first started as invasions of private ranches and conservancies in Laikipia North, early this year, fast mutated into a series of banditry attacks which quickly spread to Laikipia West.

Earlier in the year, private ranch owners made complaints to the Rift Valley regional police commander over an upsurge of herders from the neighbouring counties of Samburu, Baringo and Isiolo Counties.

In a letter to the Regional Commissioner, George Natembeya, the ranch owners expressed concerns that most of those herders who had, with their animals, forced their way into their ranches were heavily armed.

They said the herders were destroying their properties and were even invading small farms with impunity, allowing their cattle to destroy crops.

Those affected included Jennings Farm, Laikipia Nature Conservancy, Mugie Farm, Ol Maisor and Loisaba Farms.

Soon, in June, communities living in Laikipia North threatened the security officers in the area for allegedly shooting and killing their livestock at the Loisaba Wildlife Conservancy in Laikipia North, an allegation that the National Police Service and Laikipia County Commissioner Daniel Nyameti vehemently denied.

The invasion by thousands of herders pushed Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i to issue a one-week ultimatum to the herders to leave the Loisaba and Laikipia Nature conservancies, and then later, deploying police officers from the General Service Unit, the Anti-Stock Theft Unit, ASTU, and the Rapid Deployment Unit (RDU) to the ranches to enhance security.

However, as security officials concentrated their efforts on protecting private ranches, illegal herders fleeing security operations in ranches and conservancies invaded smaller farms and allowed their cattle to feed on farm produce.

Mr Petero Kirera, the chairman of Marura community, told the Nation that at least 50 acres of maize and beans have been destroyed by the livestock.

“The armed herders have been threatening to attack anyone who tries to drive the animals out of the farms whenever they find grazing in the farms,” he says.

“They came armed with spears and machetes ready to attack before they forcefully drove hundreds of their animals into our farms.”

The government later mapped out seven invasion hotspots for a major security operation to flush out illegal herders and bandits.

The areas included the Laikipia Nature Conservancy, two government owned ranches: ADC Mutara ranch in Laikipia West and 80,000 - acre Kilmon farm in Laikipia North, the Mugie ranch, Loisaba and Kirimon Nature National Reserve. The entire Ol Moran Division also in Laikipia North was profiled for the operation.

As the government conducted the operation, bandits raided and shot a General Service Unit (GSU) officer on August 30 at the Kamwenje area, bringing to seven, the number of security officers who have been shot in a period of one month in Laikipia County.

Earlier on August 2, a senior GSU inspector was shot dead after they were ambushed by armed bandits while patrolling the Laikipia Nature Conservancy.

Two weeks later, four police officers were also shot and killed at the same ranch.

Last week on Saturday night, two people were killed and about 50 houses set ablaze in Kisii Ndogo village, barely a day after the National Security Advisory Council (NSAC) held a meeting to review the Laikipia Security situation, and two days after Mr Natembeya led top security officials from the region in meeting with locals at Ol Moran township.

Residents said the attacks were staged after warning fliers were distributed in the villages.

They said that the attacks had been staged by members of a community that wanted them out, claiming that the land belonged to them.

Officials said politicians, a judge, senior military and police officers are among those who have illegally moved livestock into Laikipia conservancies.

“All leaders including politicians, businessmen, public officers and others who have illegally moved their livestock into the conflict zone to remove the same from there within 48 hours,” Interior CS Fred Matiang’i said in a statement.

When security officers moved in to quell the violence and as residents of Kisii Ndogo moved out of their homes, heavily armed gunmen moved in to battle the government forces.

“We really do not know what is happening. The violence began with forceful ranch invasions, and then they started attacking the residents living around the ranches. Now they are forcing us to leave. We have been living here for over 15 years,” a resident Robert Ongeri told the Nation.

“We all live in a 100 -acre piece of land that we bought years back under a cooperative society.”

On Sunday night, Peter Njuguna, 46, was shot dead at the Mikinduri village in Ol Moran, bringing to six the number of people who have been killed in one week.

Several other people are nursing gunshot wounds.  Hundreds of residents are now camping at the Ol Moran Township, Ol Moran Catholic Church and Ol Moran Police Station.

On Tuesday afternoon, the attackers torched Mirigwit Primary School in Laikipia West, as Mr Natembeya was holding a meeting just a few kilometers away.

At least seven schools are now closed as a result of the violence. They include Survey Primary and Secondary school, Mirango, Ndunyu Loi, Magadi, Mirigwite primary schools.

The attacks come as political leaders from the Laikipia, Baringo, West Pokot, Samburu and Isiolo Counties continue to pressure the government to return guns to Kenya Police Reservists.

Two years ago, the government withdrew more than 3,000 firearms from the reservists after it emerged that some of them had been misusing the firearms to engage in banditry and other criminal activities.

In Laikipia, leaders led by Senator John Kinyua, MPs Sarah Lekorere (Laikipia North), Patrick Mariru (Laikipia West) and Former Laikipia West MP Wachira Karani claim that their withdrawal had left residents vulnerable to banditry attacks and cattle rustling from armed criminals from the neighbouring counties.

“We have pushed hard for the government to end insecurity and we have been assured that NPRs will be reintroduced in the County, but it seems that these are only empty promises. Laikipia people need security more than anything else because without security there will be no economic development of our people. It is the work of the government to protect lives and property,” said Mr Kinyua.

It is not clear yet, where the guns in the hands of the bandits originate from, but authorities have admitted that some are armed with M16 rifles among other sophisticated weapons like the M16 rifle which is by the military in most countries for semiautomatic or automatic operation.

Yesterday, tension remained high in the area with police officers patrolling the area, although residents and leaders said that despite the curfew that is in place and a heavy contingent of police officers being deployed, the security situation had not improved.

“Police are reactive; they are doing very little. When we visited over the weekend, we saw bandits informed the cops, nothing was done. Houses were touched by the same bandits we saw roaming around with AK47s” Laikipia Governor Ndiritu Muriithi said.

Mr Muriithi said it was sad to see police officers shooting in the air when livestock were being driven away.

“Since these operations, we are only hearing of police officers being injured or killed. We have heard no reports of any bandit being arrested or even shot. We should ask ourselves why?” Mr Muriithi posed, saying that at this point, he could not help but believe that the violence is being politically instigated.

“Is it that the bandits are better trained? Is someone interfering with the manner of operation for their own interest.”

Mr Muriithi and Laikipia North MPs Sarah Lekorere called on Dr Matiang’i to consider changing the command structure of the officers involved in the operation.

“I am disappointed, frustrated and desperate.  On the ground there’s laxity. On paper, things seem strict but nothing is happening. I think the security agencies are not giving he correct position on what is happening on the ground,” Ms Lekorere said.