036 - Stephen Mutuku - Banditry and Cattle Rustling: the Conflict of North Kenya

<p>Stephen Mutinda Mutuku is a teacher, youth leader, and activist who lives and works in Northern Kenya. This area is vast and rural, with poor roads and infrastructure, leaving a very small footprint for the Kenyan state and local police to address crime and other forms of violence that regularly occurs in these northern communities.</p> <p>Though these crimes are not large enough to be understood as an intra-state "conflict" by most conflict analysts, it is certainly coordinated and widespread, representing to some degree a challenge to state authority that is headquartered in Nairobi, over 500 miles away. </p> <p>Cattle rustling has been cited as the main cause of insecurity in places like Marsabit, where I spoke to Mr. Mutuku by phone. This practice undermines the security protocols that are aimed at ending killings and banditry in Kenya’s largest county by land mass. Civilians have died in the north as a result of this violence, and, according to the Marsabit County Commissioner, is its primary security concern.</p> <p>From the state's perspective, cattle rustling isn't isn’t only a crime but a deeply entrenched retrogressive tradition among the pastoralist communities. In a single operation last year, police uncovered and seized over 300 guns and 3,000 rounds of ammunition from tibes engaging in the practice.</p> <p>I visited South Ethiopia and North Kenya last year and saw first hand the cattle in question. Tribes like The Samburu, Rendille, Turkana, Daasanach and other warriors usually raid neighbouring communities and return with hundreds of cattle. While others may think this is a barbaric practice, these tribes consider it an act of bravery that earns them accolades from young women and elders. Cattle rustling was also a way of replenishing the communities’ stocks after their herds perished during droughts, getting livestock stolen by bandits from other communities or getting animals to pay as dowry.</p> <p>It has now resulted in a continuous upheaval of violence that gets very little attention becaus