- This is the latest such daring incident in the area.
- Last Sunday, Angata Nanyekie MCA Paul Leshimpiro was shot dead by suspected bandits at Soit Pus on Maralal-Baragoi Highway.
A retired police officer is among those who were Sunday shot and killed by gunmen in a raid on homes in Samburu County.
Police said Aroi Lepokule, 63 was shot as he confronted gunmen who had raided his homestead and stole his 56 cows in the Loosuk area.
This prompted a police operation in the area that saw all the stolen animals recovered.
His killing came hours after another herder had been killed earlier on in the same area.
The incident happened in the Angata Nanyukie area, police said.
Gunmen raided the Soit Pus and Nkorika areas and left with about nine cows before shooting a 30-year-old man as he confronted them.
Police said the victim succumbed while on the way to the hospital.
This is the latest such daring incident in the area.
Last Sunday, Angata Nanyekie MCA Paul Leshimpiro was shot dead by suspected bandits at Soit Pus on Maralal-Baragoi Highway.
He was rushed to Morijo Dispensary where he succumbed to gunshot wounds, police said.
This prompted protests by residents led by all the Maa governors who called on the government to take action to stop the gangs.
The gangs have been reportedly attacking herders and blocking roads in the area.
Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki flew to the area on Tuesday and said other forms of organised crime, the fight against livestock rustlers and violent bandits in Northern Kenya require unyielding focus and determination.
He said Kenya's security agencies, local communities, and all interlocutors in the peace and security space must stay the course and periodically amend the strategic and tactical interventions for the suppression of this persistent vice.
“A year after the government deployed a permanent operation to defeat the decades-old organised crime against the people of Kenya, the time has come to change the operational interventions to seal the remaining gaps and secure the Kenya of the North.”
“As a prelude to new security measures to be announced next week to address pockets of insecurity within the Northern Rangelands, held a routine operational review with Samburu County Security agency heads and Operation Maliza Uhalifu field commanders of formed up units along the Malaso Valley, at Maralal, Samburu County,” he said.
Kindiki has been leading the operations in the area vowing to end the menace.
The Interior boss said cattle rustling in Northern Kenya has over the years become an organised criminal enterprise.
“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.
The government has promised more resources in the war against banditry.
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. End