Eight youths are nursing wounds after conflict over grazing land erupted at Logoman forest in Mau complex, Njoro Sub County.
The Nakuru County Commissioner (CC), Erastus Mbui said the boys aged between 22 and 24 years were injured in retaliatory attacks between two communities following a botched stock theft attempt, where security personnel recovered eleven cows and returned them to their owners.
“Last Friday, owners of the animals were grazing them when they were accosted by another group which drove away eleven cows. The situation has been contained. Our investigations have established that certain individuals are inciting youth who are on school holidays to engage in acts of lawlessness and hooliganism in the Sub-County,” said the administrator.
Mbui said a combined contingent of security personnel had been deployed to Witemere in Likia and Logoman Forest to avert incidents of violence.
He further warned that police were tracking suspects who were raising bogus war cries with an intention of stoking tensions in the area.
“Youth from both communities have been engaging police in a cat and mouse game after raising fake war cries to create a false impression that their respective herdsmen were under attack. We have useful leads on individuals who are inciting the students to engage in criminal acts,” warned the County Commissioner.
Mbui said following a moratorium on timber logging, Logoman forest was out of bounds for herdsmen, adding that those fighting for pastures within it were flouting the ban.
“Any form of activity within Logoman forest is illegal. We should not even be talking about herders fighting over pasture in the forest. Security personnel are under instructions to lock up and prosecute such trespassers,” he asserted
The CC called on parents to monitor activities of their children during school holidays warning that guardians and parents whose children will be arrested with arrows will be held liable personally.
“We want to advise parents to stop their children from loitering aimlessly at trading centres where opportunistic criminals divert them into undesirable acts. It is now our strategy to also go for parents whose school going children are arrested with offensive weapons”, he warned.
He said the government will not condone any individual out to create disharmony and ethnic divisions among various communities residing in the county.
By Anne Mwale
