ISIOLO, Kenya – Feb. 2 (Xinhua) – Tension has gripped (eastern Kenyan town of) Isiolo near the border with Ethiopia following the killing of one bandit during a shootout with police officers. Regional police commander Marcus Ochola confirmed the incident which he said also left one police officer injured.
Mr Ochola said the police officers who were on a regular patrol bumped into bandits who were heavily armed sparking a shootout that saw one bandit killed and a police officer injured. “The bandits were not expecting the police officers who were on a regular patrol in bushy villages of Isiolo. The encounter sparked shootout where the police manage to kill one bandit and also an inspector of police was injured. He is hospitalized,” he told Xinhua.
Pastoralist communities in the region clash regularly over highly valuable grazing land amid devastating droughts that have affected livelihoods but analysts and authorities said the recent fighting has been unusually heavy. The regional police commander said the incident brought tension in the restive Isiolo region where residents have been mobilising each other to start demonstration against the policemen.
“There is a bit of tension where the locals are mobilising each other to hold demonstration which we will not allow to take place. We will stop it because its illegal,” Ocholla said. Last month, eight people from Turkana community were killed in what authorities believe to be revenge attacks by a neighboring community following the killing of a herdsman at Burat area.
The raiders attacked the hundreds of residents who were camping at Kambi kuu Catholic Church after they were displaced by an earlier attack. Among the dead were a Catholic Catechist and a bank worker. Drought-hit northern and eastern Kenya have seen a surge in cattle rustling in the recent past with the raids leading to an increasing number of deaths and a rise in economic losses.
Kenya’s government has come under increasing pressure to improve security and curb the surge in rustling, which usually involves armed groups stealing livestock from other communities in and adjoining Kenya’s pastoral areas.
Livestock herding is the main livelihood and source of income in northern and some parts of eastern Kenya, and the hike in cattle thefts threatens to ignite cross-community reprisals and raids that could set the stage for a surge in ethnic fighting in the region. Settled Kenyan communities that live in regions bordering the pastoral areas of northeastern and eastern Kenya have complained that cattle rustling incidents are surging during drought periods. (Xinhua)
