Senators are on Wednesday expected to consider a motion that seeks to declare cattle rustling a national disaster and establish a special fund for the victims.
The motion by Baringo Senator William Cheptumo also seeks to have the national government through the Ministry of Interior establish a national task force on cattle rustling to investigate its causes.
He noted that this has been a security threat, especially in the North and South rift regions among other parts of the country.
“The menace has since left irreparable and negative socio-economic impact which include but are not limited to an increased number of widows, widowers, orphaned children, poverty, displacement of people leading to internally displaced persons (IDPs), disruption of educational programs and other economic activities owing to the destruction and or closure of educational, health and other institutions,” the motion reads in part.
The people living in the affected regions, he stated, have been denied the enjoyment of their social, economic and political rights as guaranteed to them under the Bill of Rights as enshrined in Chapter Four of the Constitution.
Cheptumo also wants the task force to establish the extent of loss and damage cattle rustling has occasioned to the communities in all the affected counties.
The special fund, he said, will help mitigate the losses suffered and compensate all victims of cattle rustling and settle all internally displaced persons occasioned by the menace.
A few months ago, the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) attributed the increase in incidents of cattle rustling to its commercialization.
In a memorandum presented to the Senate Committee on National Cohesion, Equal Opportunity and Regional Integration, NCIC said livestock raiding has increasingly turned into commercially organised crime.
“It is oftentimes carried out by self-organized youth groups, who are incited by local leaders and external actors,” the commission said.
It also added that elders in the communities have only limited influence over those types of raids so traditional conflict resolution mechanisms are eroded.
"The lack of goodwill from a section of political leadership from all the eight North Rift counties to use peace-building and peaceful approaches in dealing with current conflicts is significant," the memo read.
The recent incidents in the North Rift have caused immense havoc prompting the government to deploy a multi-agency team security team that include KDF to ramp up the fight against it.
President William Ruto's administration started a disarmament exercise on February 14, 2023, to crush bandits.
