Meru leaders demand end to cattle rustling, killings

Leaders from Meru County have demanded that the State puts a stop to cattle rustling and killings in the area.

Speaking in Nairobi, the Nyambene Njuri Ncheke Trust said incidents of Meru and Isiolo counties have been suffering at the hands of rustlers for over two years despite there being security agencies on the ground.

The leaders warned they will sue the government if it fails to stop the insecurity situation within 14 days. They also demanded the transfer of security officers who have stayed in the county for over three years and end of a culture of one community heading the entire police command structure.

“The Nyambene Njuri Ncheke Trust expresses its deepest condolences and profound outrage following the relentless wave of banditry and State-sanctioned negligence in our region,” said Kamencu Ringera, the Trust’s organising secretary.

Ringera, who was accompanied by vice chairman Gitile Naituli, said in March 2026 alone, the region witnessed a bloodbath across Tigania East, Tigania West, Buuri, Igembe Central, Igembe North and the Northern Meru grazing zones.

“From the cold-blooded killing of Sammy Munoru in Kongo Itari to the brutal murders of Jessy Kailikia and Gitonga Kabailo in Mukulubai, our people are being slaughtered like livestock while the State remains a passive spectator,” Ringera said.

​The two officials said despite high-level “security tours” by Deputy President Kithure Kindiki and Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen, the reality on the ground is a haunting landscape of death and displacement.

“While the government issues hollow declarations of ‘disturbed and dangerous’ areas, armed gangs continue to migrate from Isiolo, Kulamawe and Kina into Meru with military-grade precision and zero resistance,” said Ringera.

According to the leaders, 142 lives have been lost in the last 24 months with six expected to be buried this Saturday.

They also said over 15,000 heads of cattle have been stolen, thus making the communities bankrupt or poor, and there has been deliberate crippling of the National Police Reservists (NPR), because they have been disarmed and left defenseless while bandits roam with superior firepower.

The leaders also cited constitutional violation, where people from the Kalenjin ethnicity are the ones heading security positions.

​“The Nyambene Njuri Ncheke Trust wishes to highlight a grave and illegal trend. Under Article 232(1)(h) of the Constitution of Kenya, the public service, including the National Police Service, must reflect the representation of Kenya’s diverse communities,” said Prof Naituli.

“We have documented a disturbing reality where over 90 per cent of the security command chain in the Meru-Isiolo-Tharaka Nithi conflict zone is drawn from a single ethnic community,” he added.

The mono-ethnic command and deployment, he said, includes the Isiolo County Police Commander and County Commissioner, Regional Commander of Operations (Isiolo/Laikipia/Meru/Samburu), the GSU In-charge (Kathare) and Anti-Stock Theft Unit In-charge.

Naituli also said the Administration Police Commander for Meru County has inexplicably remained at the same station for 15 years as had the majority of Officers Commanding Stations (OCSs) and District Criminal Investigations Officers (DCIOs) across the affected sub-counties. ​“This is not a coincidence. It is a deliberate deployment strategy that violates the spirit of our Constitution. This lack of diversity breeds deep mistrust, as the Meru community feels governed by a “foreign” police command structure,” said Naituli. 

The Trust demanded the immediate reshuffle of security personal and diversification of the police command and deployment. “We demand the immediate removal and replacement of the entire security leadership team in Meru and Isiolo counties.