Two national police reservists and a herdsman were on Thursday night shot dead by suspected cattle rustlers in Kuja village, Igembe North, Meru County.
Among the dead was Mr Joel Baariu, who is a Meru county enforcement officer and a ranking leader of the 140 police reservists stationed in Nyambene and Buuri regions.
The three were ambushed and shot dead in Thanaki area, about five kilometres from the Kinisa GSU camp while chasing 159 herds of cattle and nine donkeys that had been stolen in Amwathi.
Meru Peace Initiatives chairman Charles Kamwibua said the nearly 30 heavily armed raiders, believed to be from Samburu East, fled with the NPR's two G3 rifles.
Police officers from Mutuati later recovered the stolen animals but the raiders are still at large, having disappeared in the cover of darkness in the vast Northern Grazing Zone.
The attack sparked protests from the residents who appealed to Interior CS Kithure Kindiki to order a security operation in the area to end the vice.
Mr Jacob Mantili, a farmer in Amwathi, said cattle rustlers had become bolder because the police had failed to arrest them despite issuing threats to the criminals.
He said they had lost more than 30 people to the rustlers, who he said were armed with illegal weapons.
"There have been reports of police guns being stolen, but nothing has been done. The reason our people are being killed is because of the security operation that was promised but never carried out.
"That is why they are getting bolder by the day. If you had carried out the operation you keep promising, this would not have happened. Are we still in Kenya?" he protested.
Amwathi MCA Henry Thuranira said the police reservists were being killed and their guns stolen, leaving the local herders exposed.
"We need operations now and then, otherwise we risk losing our people and the only guns we have," he lamented.
Ms Winfred Kathambi said the cattle rustlers had spread fear in the region and left them impoverished and were spending sleepless nights in fear of being attacked.
"We face incessant attacks yet the only thing we get from the government is
Mr Mantili, on his part, accused the authorities of reluctance to effectively tackle cattle rustling, especially when the victims were from the Amwathi area.
"So far we have lost over 30 people in this area. I don't know the number of people you want dead so that you can act," he said.
Mr Thuranira said farmers in the area felt threatened and were no longer tending to their farms due to fear.
"Those who plough the land using tractors are afraid of venturing there since they hear gunshots from the vicinity every day.
"When local herders are grazing in the farms, they motivate the women to venture into the farms but now they cannot dare go there,” he said.
