Cattle rustling in Northern Kenya has over the years become an organised criminal enterprise responsible for deaths, destitution and displacement.
Its impacts are severe. It deprives pastoral communities their economic mainstay and aggravates the conditions of poverty in the rangelands, fuelling communal grievances and revenge attacks.
On Friday, Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki was in Laikipia county to assess the security situation.
He was accompanied by Security officers to Posta where he held a meeting and later spoke to residents.
"To dismantle the infrastructure of cattle rustlers and facilitators, 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," Kindiki said.
Kindiki commended the efforts that saw the handover of heads of cattle that had been stolen, and recovered in full, and rewarded security officers, local leaders and youth whose collaborative efforts have realised the recovery in the area.
The Interior boss noted that to dismantle the infrastructure of cattle rustlers and facilitators, the government is sustaining the war on banditry and its perpetrators, enablers, benefactors and beneficiaries by making banditry a painful venture.