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Beyond the shadows: Tracking suspected bandits in Kainuk, West Pokot
What you need to know:
- Several of the trials have ended six feet under, with police and civilians paying the ultimate price of hunting down bandits and cattle rustlers.
- As multi-agency security teams continue to play hide and seek with the gun-toting butchers, the Nation attempts to track down the suspected lords of impunity in West Pokot County and surrounding areas.
It is well-established that Kenya's North Rift region has been plagued by banditry for more than 10 years.
Livestock theft and slaughter of innocent people have marred the region - including the infamous Kapedo massacre of 21 Administration Police officers in 2014 and the killing of 40 officers in the Suguta Valley a death trap near Baragoi in November 2012.
Early this year, the government declared a full-scale operation, involving the Kenya Defense Force (KDF), the General Service Unit (GSU), and the Anti-Stock Theft Unit (ASTU) against the bandits. Nonetheless, fresh banditry attacks and cattle rustling activities have resurfaced in recent times.
The Nation recently published exclusive drone footage on X and Facebook revealing that the Kenya Defense Force had captured bandits lurking freely in Kainuk.
When the footage appeared online, it sparked public debates, prompting further investigation by The Nation to paint a vivid context.
EXCLUSIVE FOOTAGE: KDF drone captures bandits lurking in Kainuk pic.twitter.com/DlK2jgVVFr
— Nation Africa (@NationAfrica) December 13, 2023
The video featuring alleged bandits in Kainuk was published online on December 13, 2023, and was subsequently shared by online users.
The latter cast doubts whether these were truly bandits or simply usual herders since it is a longstanding practice of Northern Kenyan pastoralist communities to carry guns while looking after their cattle.
The three armed men and a young man.
The video shows four dark-skinned men, one of whom seems to be a bit young; almost a boy. The three elder herders are in possession of AK-47 rifles while the young man appears unarmed.
All of them are wearing vests and short pants as they share a drink from a bottle while engaging in a conversation, under the scorching sun, soon followed by unison movement down the open field in the arid landscape.
The Nation was unable to unmask the men's faces as the drone footage wasn't clear enough to reveal facial details.
However, the Nation was able to establish that the three men were armed with guns even though this is currently outlawed in the North Rift.
In February, President William Ruto issued a directive that outlawed all unlicenced guns in civilian hands in the North Rift, especially in Suguta Valley, Kapedo, Tiaty Arabal, and Kainuk. This move came in response to the sporadic attacks from bandits who had been wrecking havoc in the region at that time.
Moreover, the government provided a three-day amnesty period for the surrender of illegal firearms. The voluntary disarmament allowed for the surrender of guns without repercussions.
This initiative saw little success, with only 15 firearms out of a projected 2,500 being volutarily surrendered in the area.
Location
Looking at the video itself, there were interesting features but not enough to confirm exactly where the four men were spotted.
However, we were able to geolocate the probable position of the four men close to the Laiteruk mountains, East of Kainuk (1.742419699599305, 35.72943168300764). Here’s how.
Towards the tail end of the video footage, there is a fast zoom-out revealing the middle ground that contains a vast forest, which pans toward the background that has two hilltop positions on the horizon.
The two hills in the background can be matched to this location using a panorama on Google Earth Pro.
For conclusive confirmation, we used the PeakVisor platform to simulate different views and angles until we obtained the best configuration that matched the shape of hills in the background, as per the perspective captured by the drone footage.
PeakVisor equally pointed out Laiteruk, a Mountain peak in Turkana County.
Through this contextual information, the Nation further established that the armed bandits roamed in an area within 20 kilometers East of Kainuk town.
The hills and the vast forest can all be seen from the drone’s field of view, as highlighted in the red triangle in Google Earth imagery below.
Date and time
The footage was privately shared with the Nation by closed-sources within the Kenya Defence Forces who did not wish to reveal further information on when this footage was recorded. The video was made publicly available on December 13.
Now using SunCalc, shadow analysis suggest the motion pictures were shot between Sunday, December 10, and Tuesday, December 12, 2023.
Further scrutiny shows the armed bandits were lurking within Kainuk at a time of about 13:00 hours EAT. It should be noted that due to the lack of clear landmarks, this is a rough assessment, with a margin of error of an hour or so.
The latest escalation
This footage comes after recent reports of bandits carrying out a fierce shootout in Lochacha village, Parkou sub-location on November 28, which left 6 people killed and 16 others hospitalised with injuries in various hospitals across West Pokot County.
