Salama Ward in Laikipia County is experiencing high levels of tension as a result of an overwhelming invasion of the area by herdsmen from the neighbouring Samburu County who were looking for pasture for their livestock as the effects of the drought took their toll.
Hundreds of Bosnia village residents in Salama’s Kieni area were injured yesterday while attempting to drive illegal grazers away from their shambas.
At least ten people were injured when the grazers retaliated with rungus and spears, forcing the residents to flee for their lives.
Security officers from the Kieni Police Post were unable to deter the illegal grazers from attacking the residents.
Some of the injured bemoaned the damage that illegal grazers had caused in the region by forcibly herding cattle into their farms.
Francis Gitonga and Charles Macharia spoke at Nyahururu County & Referral Hospital, where they were rushed for treatment, about how they engaged the grazers but escaped with injuries.
As the armed grazers descended on them with nut-headed rungus, some of those injured sustained head and arm injuries.
Laikipia West Member of Parliament who visited the area for a public meeting recalled hearing distress calls from a nearby village and seeing some residents being rushed to the hospital with their clothes soaked in blood.
He expressed regret for the incident and urged the government to act quickly to remove the illegal grazers, saying their behavior was now inexplicable.
He stated that one of the meeting’s agenda items would be to discuss issues of insecurity and illegal grazers who had invaded the area and were wreaking havoc on farmers.
Speaking to the media, residents and the local MP are concerned that this is a recipe for a conflict between the locals and the immigrants, and they want the government to act quickly to ensure that the herdsmen are driven back to their areas of origin.
He stated that the herders had invaded the area in search of pasture, but that their behavior could not be tolerated.
The leaders also forbade the herdsmen from entering other people’s farms without their consent, noting that doing so was not only against the law but also violated other people’s rights.
They argued that respect for other people’s property was essential and a duty that needed to be upheld.
