Police recover firearm, and livestock in Turkana operation

Police on Wednesday evening recovered some 290 sheep, a firearm and several round of ammunition from a lorry in Kainuk, Turkana County.

The driver of the lorry was arrested and taken to Kainuk police station where the lorry is also being detained for transporting the animals without proper documentation.

The operation was undertaken by officers who are part of the Operation Maliza Uhalifu which was launched to eradicate banditry in Turkana, Baringo, Samburu, Laikipia, West Pokot and Elgeyo Marakwet counties.

Police said that the sheep are suspected to have been stolen from Lokichar within the county.

The incident came on the day when Interior CS Kipchumba Murkomen was appearing before a parliamentary committee to answer questions from MPs following the killing of 239 animals in Samburu County.

Local leaders led by governor Lati Lelelit however disputed the number saying animals killed were 764 belonging to 43 families, where they demanded to be compensated to a tune of Sh70 million.

Murkomen however ruled out any compensation saying that it would open a ‘Pandora’s box’ and that his ministry does not have a budgetary allocation for compensation.

At the October 7, 2026, committee sitting the CS told MPs that underdevelopment and marginalization were driving the high cases of cattle rustling and banditry.

“All those areas that are banditry prone, there is one common denominator. There are no roads, there is no network, there are no schools, there are even no police stations. Accessibility and development are the greatest contributors to the unsustainable factor on banditry,” he said.

He called on MPs to use their CDF allocation to improve their areas economically including the construction of roads while calling on governors to do more with the money allocated to development.

“Unless proper road networks, communication networks, schools and water infrastructure are developed in these areas, police and security will continue doing this over and over again.”

Murkomen said that some leaders including MPs were the ones exacerbating the problem by inciting and arming their communities for attacks and retaliation.

He said that between June and September 2026, security agencies had recovered 3,221 livestock out of 4,306 reported stolen from Meru and Isiolo counties.

These attacks also led to the killing of 14 people and injured 17 others with five being in critical condition in various hospitals.

At the meeting the CS was accompanied by Inspector General of Police Douglas Kanja, Directorate of Criminal Investigations Mohamed Amin and several top police bosses and ministry officials.

Murkomen said that the government would beef up security in the affected areas, including the deployment of the recently graduated 10,000 police officers and there would be a recruitment of more National Police Reservists.