Thousands flee violent attacks by cattle raiders

More than 10,000 people have fled their villages in two districts in northern Kenya following a spate of violent raids by cattle rustlers in which several people were killed and thousands of livestock stolen, the Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS) and the police said on Tuesday.

Over the past two weeks, some 9,900 people in Samburu district have sought shelter in nine locations, including churches and schools, after armed raiders attacked their homes and stole livestock, according to Farid Abdulkadir, KRCS head of disaster response.

Police said seven people were killed by the armed assailants, who raided villages in Samburu and seized 1,492 head of cattle and 1,502 goats and sheep.

"We have delivered both food and non-food items and we plan to move more relief supplies there because the number of those displaced is increasing," said Abdulkadir. The aid supplied included tarpaulins, blankets, cooking utensils, mosquito nets and water purification tablets.

The KRCS was also assisting some 750 people who had fled their homes in Marsabit district after they were raided by cattle rustlers believed to have entered Kenya from Ethiopia. Two people were killed and livestock driven away during one of the attacks in Marsabit on Saturday. Nine other people had gone missing, Abdulkadir said, adding that those displaced had gathered at Dukana village, about 20 km from the Kenya-Ethiopia border.

Herder communities in northern and northeastern Kenya have a tradition of attacking each other's villages to steal livestock, but the raids have become increasingly violent as herdsmen illegally acquire firearms, which are readily available in the area. Kenyan authorities have in the past blamed insecurity in the northern and northeastern districts on guns smuggled from neighbouring Somalia, which has had no functional government since 1991.

Police spokesman Gideon Kibunjah said in a statement that more police had been deployed to Baringo district in Kenya's Rift Valley province, where incidents of cattle rustling had also been reported, Marsabit as well as Samburu and neighbouring Laikipia district.

The districts hit by cattle raids have been experiencing severe drought, during which pastoralists have lost thousands of livestock due to lack of water and pasture. The raids are being witnessed at the beginning of the rainy season. "It [rustling] seems to be a way of restocking by communities which lost their livelihoods during the drought," Abdulkadir said.