NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 26 – President William Ruto has ordered for a major operation to flash out cattle rustlers who killed 8 police officers, a chief and two civilians in Turkana East on Saturday.

A statement from the President’s twitter account stated that “he has instructed security agencies to deal firmly, decisively and conclusively with those involved adding that Cattle rustling will stop.”

The directive came a day after the Head of State said that he will be demanding results from the National Police Service (NPS) in the execution of their mandate after granting them financial autonomy.

“I will be demanding of them results because they always complain that they were curtailed by the fact that they have to look for resources in the office of the president,” he had stated during his inauguration speech.

“I have now separated their budget, they are running their own budget, they are running their own strategy and we will be demanding from them security of Kenyans because that is their mandate, and we will be making sure that they deliver on that mandate.”

President Ruto further appealed to the religious leaders to pray for the men and women in uniform across the country as they maintain law and order.

The theft of livestock or quarrels over grazing and water sources are common between cattle herding communities in northern Kenya. 

Police said on Twitter that a “criminal and cowardly ambush” by Cattle Rustlers had taken place in Turkana County on Saturday.

Eight of the dead were police officers, two were civilians and one a local chief, they said.

The police who were killed had been pursuing members of the Pokot ethnic group who had attacked a village and fled with cattle.

In November 2012, more than 40 policemen were killed in an ambush as they pursued cattle thieves in Baragoi, a remote district in Kenya’s arid north.

And in August 2019, at least 12 people, including three children, were killed in two attacks in northern Kenya by cattle rustlers suspected to be from the Borana ethnic group.

Kenya, the most dynamic economy in East Africa, is in the grip of the worst drought in four decades after four failed rainy seasons wiped out livestock and crops.

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