No need to label bandits, rustlers as ‘terrorists’
Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki addresses a security meeting at Maurus Academy in Chesongoch, Elgeyo Marakwet County, on January 3, 2022. The CS has said cattle rustling and banditry are equivalent to terrorism and that there is not much difference between rustlers, bandits and Al-Shabaab.
The recent killing of two schoolgirls herding their family livestock in Kerio Valley has rekindled the push to classify cattle rustlers and bandits as terrorists with those convicted sentenced to death or life imprisonment.
No doubt, incidents of cattle rustling and banditry have been on the increase in arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs), leading to unwarranted loss of lives, property such as livestock, disruption of businesses and closure of learning institutions.
The philosophy behind classifying rustling as acts of terrorism is that it will eventually allow the government, including the international community, to use maximum force to rein them in. It may allow the government to deploy specialised units and equipment, including Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) troops, to fight the new “terrorists” in town.
At a security meeting in Samburu County recently, Interior Cabinet Secretary Kindiki Kithure bowed to these pressures by stating that cattle rustling and banditry are equivalent to terrorism and that there is not much difference between rustlers, bandits and Al-Shabaab.
The problem starts with the definition. There is no universally agreed legal definition of terrorism. Our own Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) of 2012 does not define terrorism or a terrorist but a terrorist act, group or property, describing “radicalisation” from an ideological and belief perspective.
The National Strategy to Counter Violent Extremism restates the “terrorist acts” as defined by POTA. It defines a “terrorist organisation or group” as, amongst others, groups with “disguised command-and-control hierarchy for propaganda, ideological indoctrination and mass mobilisation”.
Traditional command
Cattle rustlers and bandits do not ascribe or promote, through violence and propaganda, a known extreme ideological or belief narrative. Today’s rustlers rarely seek elders’ blessings before raiding a community. They have abandoned the known traditional command and control hierarchies.
So, conflating rustling or banditry with terrorism is not necessarily the solution to this menace. If the government cannot fight ragtag rustlers or bandits, how can it fight hardcore ideologically inspired terrorists like Al-Shabaab or Islamic State that are increasingly finding new spaces in East Africa to regroup, radicalise and recruit?
Again, if we label rustlers and bandits as “terrorists”, then we may do any other crime that can be easily handled by the Penal Code as “terrorist acts”. Rustlers and bandits can be tamed using the available legal, policy and administrative tools. What is missing is political goodwill at the national and county government level to address the problem.
Research shows police officers deployed to flush out bandits, recover stolen livestock and mop up illicit arms are mostly prevailed upon by complicit political civilian leadership to abort the mission. Allowing the security formations to do their work without hindrance, compulsory basic education, investing in education and integrating the ASALs to the national economy is the sustainable solution.
Mr Pkalya, a conflict analyst, is co-author of ‘Conflict in Northern Kenya: A Focus on Internally Displaced Conflict Victims’. [email protected]. @DPkalya
