More tension has gripped Samburu following a daring raid by suspected bandits at the home of the former Agriculture Principal Secretary Richard Lesiyampe who served during the tenure of Former President Uhuru Kenyatta.
The bandits targeted the home where most residents keep their livestock since the residence is presumed to be more secure.
Residents narrated how the daring suspected cattle rustlers accessed the home of the PS by shooting at the house as has been characteristic of the many raids that have led to deaths and property destruction.
“They came and sprayed the house with about 20 bullets,” one resident stated.
National police reservists however, managed to repel the attack and force the bandits away from the home.
Residents have decried continued attacks, deaths and loss of cattle, calling on the government to put more effort in addressing the situation.
“We have complained of this situation for a long time. Many of our people, more than 80 of them, men, women and children have died. We are appealing to the president, at this moment, we feel like we would only be safe at State House,” another resident lamented.
Speaking to the media, Lesiyampe termed the act of cattle rustling as primitive and called on the perpetrators to stop.
“My home was attacked last night by marauding bandits. Cattle rustling is a primitive method of capital accumulation, and this must stop. The landscape of Samburu West is littered with fear and death,” the former PS stated.
This comes barely two weeks after the killing of a national police reservist by armed bandits in Graton village in Laikipia with five people sustaining injuries in the shootout.
In the incident, security officers were ambushed as they pursued the bandits who had raided the home of one Maina Murugu where they had made away with nine cows that would later be recovered.
The government has been on the fore-front in curbing banditry. In February last year as cases of banditry were on the rise, the government announced that it was launching an operation dubbed Maliza Uhalifu North Rift which is still ongoing.
