Curfew in Kenya conservation area over deadly raids

Kenya has imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew in the Laikipia Nature Conservancy in the Rift Valley region following a surge in banditry and cattle rustling.

Armed pastoralists are said to have invaded private conservancies in the area with large herds of cattle, killing at least 12 people and burning down homes in what the government says ”is competition for water and pasture.”

Local media have broadcast images of distressed men, women and children riding in carts and bicycles filled with their belongings as they run away from their homes following a series of overnight invasions.

The National Security Council, which oversees the country’s security forces, has now declared the conservancy and its environs “a disturbed area” and ordered a security operation to drive out pastoralists from private land.

Politicians, businessmen and public servants are among those said to have illegally moved their livestock into the conflict zone.

The government says ”competition for scarce resources is fuelling the violence which has displaced hundreds of people.”

But these areas experience similar unrests nearly every election cycle, raising questions on the political rhetoric in Laikipia ahead of next year’s general elections.

BBC/Mercy Chukwudiebere