Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki says the government will run a program to financially reward security officers and members of the public whose efforts will result in the arrest of the key planners and enablers of banditry.
Speaking in Posta, Laikipia County On Friday, as he witnessed the handover of heads of cattle that had been stolen, the CS said that cattle rustling in Northern Kenya has over the years become an organized criminal enterprise responsible for deaths, destitution, and displacement.
“To dismantle the infrastructure of cattle rustlers and facilitators, the government is sustaining the war on banditry and its perpetrators, enablers, benefactors, and beneficiaries by making banditry a painful venture, ensuring the recovery of stolen livestock, and rewarding facilitators of recoveries, “he added.
Kindiki said the strategic move is aimed at incentivizing the ongoing war against violent livestock rustling and other related crimes. Additionally, the CS also revealed that the profiles of perpetrators in banditry, their ringleaders and financiers, and the profiteers of the dreaded criminal network will be made public in 2024.
“Its impacts are severe( banditry). It deprives pastoral communities of their economic mainstay and aggravates the conditions of poverty in the rangelands, fueling communal grievances and revenge attacks,” he said.
Regional, county, and local security heads, officers, area political leaders, and members of the public were present.
