Kenyan cattle herders defend ‘necessary’ land invasions

– ‘No option’ –

Fellow herder, 30-year-old Lokimaniki Lekaal, agrees: “Despite the law, we have no option. We cannot sit around and watch our animals die of hunger.”

A glance at an aerial view of Laikipia shows the stark difference between the green of well-managed, fenced-off private land and the dust bowl free-for-all of the over-grazed rangelands.

Too many people with too much livestock have rendered the rangeland unlivable for the growing population, a situation exacerbated by climate change.

But in the immediate struggle for survival, talk of long-term planning or better land management is a luxury Lekaal dismisses. “When all the grass is finished we will die. It is up to God,” he says. Until then he will keep his cattle wherever grass can be found.

– ‘We don’t fight twice’ –

The two men insist that drought is the reason they herd livestock onto private land and deny any suggestion their actions are politically motivated as Kenya heads towards a general election on August 8.

“There’s no leader who has influenced us to go to graze in someone’s land, it is we, ourselves, that decided to go and graze our animals inside the ranches,” Lekaal says.

Nevertheless, local MP Mathew Lempurkel, a Samburu, has been charged with incitement over the murder of Voorspuy, while a politician in neighbouring Baringo county was similarly charged over arson attacks on Gallmann’s estate before his own murder in May.

Some invaders in Laikipia have been photographed wearing Lempurkel campaign T-shirts. The MP himself, facing a tight election, has both denied the charges against him and used them to burnish his credentials as the champion of pastoralist interests.

– ‘Only ones suffering’ –

Moran culture plays a part too.

Young, unmarried and often uneducated — neither Letimalo nor Lekaal went to school — the herders revel in aggressive displays of machismo and pride themselves on not backing down from a fight. “We don’t fight twice,” as Letimalo puts it.

Landowners and herders alike complain that a late and half-hearted government security response has made matters worse.

The herders also say their acts of retaliatory arson and violence are provoked by the security forces.

“There’s a time we set property on fire but that was because one of our colleagues was killed,” says Letimalo. “We had no option but to burn the property. It’s not as bad as killing someone!”

“We are the only ones suffering,” adds Lekaal.