This archive report was first published on 5 June 2020.
On Sunday, June 5, 2020, police in Laikipia made a significant breakthrough in the fight against cattle rustling, killing three suspected thieves and recovering 24 stolen heads of cattle.
According to Laikipia police County Commander Maxwel Nyaema, the trio was cornered in Ole naishu area after they had raided a homestead at Umande village in Laikipia East and stolen the animals.
“We got information that this gang had raided the village and had driven away the livestock, we dispatched two groups of anti stock theft officers and eventually cornered them at Ole Naishu area,” Nyaema told reporters at his Nanyuki office.
During the shootout, the suspected rustlers resisted arrest and engaged the officers, resulting in the three being killed and one officer injured.
Mr. Nyaema further stated that three AK 47 assault rifles, 62 bullets, two machetes, and a mobile phone were recovered from the dead suspects after the operation.
He added that investigators would use mobile phone data from the phone to trace their accomplices, and that his officers were in pursuit of local criminals believed to be holding illegal guns used in livestock theft in the vast county.
The dead suspects were young men whose ages ranged from 22 to 26 years.
