Samburu Governor Jonathan Lati lelelit is calling upon the national government to compensate families whose livestock were killed during an ongoing security operation in Losesia area last week.

Lelelit says more than 700 cattle, donkeys, goats and sheep were shot and killed while others injured during the operation, an incident that affected 43 families.

“It is about KSh70 million total value. We have compensated coffee and tea farmers in billions,” the Governor says. “All we ask is that those people who are destitute, so that they can feed their children, should be compensated.”

According to the county boss, this is not the first time the people of Samburu are suffering injustices at the hands of security officers deployed in the area to restore peace and security.

“It is important that we balance between security and the protection of the innocent when we proceed with this security operation,” Governor Lelelit said in an interview with Citizen TV. “These events are not isolated, they are built on the historical injustices of the past, even if we are just talking about Samburu East. The magnitude of damage is even much bigger that what we are discussing today of 700 cattle being killed.”

In May 2008, an operation led by security forces saw more than 5,000 cattle belonging to Samburu pastoralists from Archers Post and Losesia areas driven away through Waso Bridge, never to return, leaving the innocent Samburu owners destitute for years that followed.

The governor also highlighted that between 2017 and 2022, Samburu pastoralists had seen more than 2,400 of their cattle indiscriminately shot dead by security forces in Laikipia, which he characterised as a “grave violation of rights and fundamental freedoms within the framework of our constitution.”

Lelelit empasised that these past incidences—coupled with the latest one in September 2026—provide definitive proof of ongoing institutionalised prejudices and structural biases in the application of existing laws and security protocols, to the detriment of the Samburu people.

In previous incidents, the community had to hire lawyers and take the government to court to seek justice. However, legal redress for compensation claims has been largely unsuccessful. It is for this reason that Governor Lelelit explained they are trying a different method: approaching the Kenya Kwanza administration directly.

“We have met so many lawyers, so many NGOs, and the outcomes of all these efforts were, we got zero compensation,” Lelelit noted. “That is why we are trying to take a different approach this time, by approaching the government without first going to court.”

He added: “I’ve talked to these affected families and asked them, ‘what do you really want, what can we do? What is their desire?’, they were very emphathetic and told me that one of them lost cows in Laikipia, and they went in courts after courts after courts. They asked me if there is a way where we can talk to the government, so that they can be compensated fairly—that is what they prefer.”

The governor also dismissed Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen’s claims that security officers had to shoot at the herds because bandits were hiding amidst them.

“We are not buy Murkomen’s flimsy alibi that there were bandits hiding amongst the cows and that is why the cows were killed. Ifg you were to picture this… 300 cows were killed in one spot, and no single cow walked out of that shooting. Let us assume we are buying that flimsy alibi. You shoot all the cows that cover the area of two football fields and they are dead, and there were bandits amongst these cows…How is it possible that no single bandit was injured or killed?”