Nairobi, Kenya| Marsabit County Senator Mohamed Chute has launched a fierce condemnation of Kenya’s security apparatus, demanding immediate and detailed explanations from the Senate Committee on National Security, Defence and Foreign Relations after a brazen livestock raid in Isiolo Town on November 15, 2025, that saw 130 heads of cattle stolen in broad daylight.
The theft took place barely 200 metres from the Isiolo County Referral Hospital police barrier, a spot meant to be under constant armed watch.
Armed raiders struck with chilling efficiency, overpowering traders who had stopped to rest after a long journey along one of the busiest livestock corridors in northern Kenya.
The hardest-hit victims were five Marsabit-based traders — Abdi Tuse, Guyo Galgalo, Halkano Guyo, Tari Kuna, and Okotu Elema — who lost their entire consignments within minutes.
The stolen cattle, worth tens of millions of shillings, represented years of savings and the main source of income for dozens of families in the arid regions of Marsabit and Isiolo.
Witnesses described scenes of chaos as gunmen herded the animals toward the Ewaso Nyiro River under cover of darkness and disappeared into the vast rangelands.
Speaking on the Senate floor and to the media, Senator Chute described the incident as shocking, unacceptable, and a glaring indictment of systemic failure along livestock trade routes.
“How do you explain 130 cattle vanishing less than a stone’s throw from a permanent police barrier?” he asked. “This was not some remote ambush — it happened in the middle of Isiolo Town, right beside a referral hospital full of security personnel.”
The senator has formally written to the Senate Standing Committee on National Security, seeking clear answers on several urgent questions: whether the hospital barrier was properly manned and equipped that night, what intelligence was available beforehand and why it was not acted upon, the current progress of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations probe, whether any arrests have been made and what is delaying them, what is being done to trace and recover the stolen animals, and what long-term measures are being put in place to secure livestock markets and transit corridors across Isiolo, Marsabit, and neighbouring counties.
Beyond accountability for this particular raid, Senator Chute is pushing for sweeping reforms that include deploying more specially trained National Police Reservists along livestock routes, installing CCTV cameras and floodlights at key barriers and markets, introducing real-time livestock tracking systems in partnership with county governments, improving inter-county and cross-border intelligence sharing, and setting up permanent multi-agency command centres in high-risk areas.
“Traders should not lose their life savings because the state looked the other way,” Chute declared. “We can no longer treat livestock theft as a cultural nuisance when it is organised crime draining billions from Kenya’s economy every year.”
As of December 5, 2025, the Senate Committee has acknowledged the senator’s queries but has not yet issued a public response or timeline for its findings.
The Isiolo raid has once again spotlighted the chronic insecurity plaguing northern Kenya’s multi-billion-shilling cattle trade, with pastoralist leaders warning that failure to act decisively will further erode trust in the government’s ability to protect vital economic corridors.
For the five devastated traders — Abdi Tuse, Guyo Galgalo, Halkano Guyo, Tari Kuna, and Okotu Elema — the wait for justice and the return of their herds goes on, while Senator Mohamed Chute vows to maintain relentless pressure until real results are delivered.
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