It’s quite unfortunate that livestock resources on which the community of Northern Kenya regarded as their ‘four-legged gold’ should turn into the same reason for which to turn against each other and cause such maleficent bloodshed. Yet, 54 people in this region are reported to have been killed in cattle rustling related incidences in the recent past.

It is apparent that the problem of cattle rustling is deep rooted driven by demand forces. On one hand is a lucrative national and international market that is already too willing to buy cattle regardless of the means of obtaining it while on the other is a proliferation of weapons and idle youth in this region who are motivated at a small cost to instigate cattle rustling. In addition, severity of cattle rustling in some pockets of Northern Kenya has resulted in the Kenyan government regarding it as “terrorist activity”. The question then begs, have the institutions mandated with prevention of this vice lost the war or is it that there is need to re-think traditional strategies applied to deal with cattle rustling?

http://clippings.ilri.org/2015/05/12/blood-sucking-ticks-and-their-disease-and-death-toll-in-africa/ and http://www.irinnews.org/report/99846/cattle-rustling-and-the-politics-of-business-in-kenya