Category: Cattle Rustlers | Date: Apr 29 2008 | By: William

Yesterday afternoon cattle rustlers entered Kenya and stole 24 cattle and 2 donkeys from the communities living up on the escarpment. Our rangers were alerted at around 3pm and joined Tanzanian rangers and the Kenyan Anti-Stock Theft Unit in pursuit of the rustlers.

A battle ensued for more than one hour, with sporadic gunfire between both sides. During one of these bursts of fire our Ranger Johnson Leyian was shot in both legs. He suffered heavy bleeding and was immediately taken to the main station here at Mara Serena. It was not possible to arrest the bleeding and surgery was also needed, so he was airlifted by African Air Rescue to the Aga Khan hospital in Nairobi. On arrival he was given four pints of blood.

Ranger Johnson Leyian at Ngiro-are Outpost

It was extremely bold of the rustlers to attack in broad daylight. Normally these thefts are attempted at night, a week either side of the full moon. Before the financial crisis hit the Conservancy, we would often lay night ambushes for these rustlers but we no longer have the funds to put these in place.

Our reduced visibility in the area may have been an incentive for the rustlers with all our night patrols halted since January, along with a massive reduction in joint day patrols of the area with Tanzanian rangers.

Also, on March 3rd rustlers attacked at night and managed to escape with cattle from the local community. It was one of only a handful of successful thefts since the start of the Mara Conservancy in 2001, and occurred at a time when the electricity is off at the main station - due to cutbacks - this made it extremely difficult to coordinate the rangers and offer further assistance, as they were only able to use radio handsets which were out of range.

We believe that a combination of reduced visibility in the area, and the successful theft in the beginning of March, emboldened the rustlers and led to yesterday’s attack in broad daylight.

Rangers and Hippo poachers on 9th April; Ranger Leyian in the centre.

Today, Ranger Leyian’s condition is stable and he is expected to make a full recovery. Our insurance will cover the costs of medical treatment but not the costs of the emergency flight, which will be at around 420,000 Kenyan Shillings (roughly US $7,000).

Please make a donation if you are able. Thank you.

Click here to receive the latest updates to your email inbox.

Tags: 1075, 1093, 220, 349, 37, 43, 768

32 responses so far