Security bosses Monday dispatched more troops to parts of Laikipia to pursue gunmen who are terrorising residents.
This follows the latest incident in which a popular rancher was shot and wounded in an attack by gunmen in a daring incident in Rumuruti.
This came a week after another gang raided ranches in the area and drove off with dozens of animals.
Police said there are dozens of gunmen roaming the area with the aim of staging more attacks hence the need for more focus on the area.
On Sunday, a rancher was ambushed as she headed for a church event in the area, police said.
She suffered a gunshot wound at the back of her head and her arm during the attack, witnesses and her family said.
She was rushed to Rumuruti subcounty hospital and later moved to Pope Benedict XVI Hospital in Nyahururu where she is admitted.
Residents said there has been an increase in attacks in the past weeks and called on security agencies to enhance operations to tame the trend.
It is not clear why she was targeted.
The victim's ranch is located several kilometres away from Rumuruti town which has been invaded by illegal grazers who also built shanties.
Efforts to evict them from her farm have always landed in courts as they claim ownership of part of the land.
Security agencies had been placed on high alert to ward off any incidences of banditry and armed conflicts.
Last week, gunmen raided villages in parts of Ngarua, Nyahururu and drove off with an unknown number of animals.
The gang staged the attack on Thursday morning and targeted Mbogoini dam bordering Laikipia National Conservancy (LNC), police and residents said.
No injury was made during the daring attack. The incident came days after a similar raid was staged at Muige Conservancy where more than 260 animals were stolen.
Ranch owners in the area have decried a new wave of attacks by gunmen who usually steal their animals.
This comes amid sustained operations by the multi-agency teams against the incidents in vain.
Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki has been leading the operations in the area vowing to end the menace.
Kindiki said 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 of their economic mainstay and aggravates the conditions of poverty in the rangelands, fuelling communal grievances and revenge attacks,” he said.
To dismantle the infrastructure of cattle rustlers and facilitators he said, 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.
