Perceived community livelihoods and management of banditry and cattle rustling menace in Baringo county, Kenya

Abstract

Banditry and cattle rustling activities is mostly prevalent in the Northwestern region of Kenya. This involved stealing cattle of the highest breed or replenishing animals lost through disease outbreaks and drought. These raids have had negative effects to the communities such as loss of lives, living in fear and destruction of properties. Consequently, various measures are being put in place to manage banditry and cattle rustling menace. This study, therefore, sought to review management of banditry and cattle rustling menace by fulfilling the following objective; a review of the perceived community livelihood on managing banditry and cattle rustling in Baringo County. The theoretical foundations of the study comprised of Opportunity Theory and the theory of Change. To achieve this objective a descriptive survey and correlational research design was employed. The population for the study comprised of 316 Moran group leaders. This included County Commissioners, District Peace Committees, village head elders, chiefs, and leaders of the Moran groups, Moran group leaders. Questionnaires was used to gather information from a sample of 168 respondents while interview guide was issued to County Commissioners, District Peace Committees, village head elders, chiefs, and leaders for qualitative data. The data was collected through drop and pick method which is a convenient and time saving mode of administering questionnaire. The narrative data to be obtained through open ended questions was qualitatively analyzed through content analysis. While quantitative data was analyzed through correlation analysis and descriptive statistics with the help of SPSS tool. Descriptive data was presented in the form of tables and figures. Pre-testing was conducted, and the questionnaire was found to be valid and reliable. The study concludes that cultural practices have a positive and significant effect on banditry and cattle rustling menace management in Baringo County, Kenya (β1=0.364, p value= 0.000). In addition, the study concludes that economic practices have a positive and significant effect on banditry and cattle rustling menace management in Baringo County, Kenya (β1=0.305, p value= 0.001). Further, the study concludes that social practices have a positive and significant effect on banditry and cattle rustling menace management in Baringo County, Kenya (β1=0.294, p value= 0.002). From the findings, this study recommends that the community elders in Baringo County should uphold some cultural practices like marriage and fight practices of female Genital Mutilation. In addition, the study recommends community elders in Baringo County to uphold economic practices like livestock farming, crop production, bee keeping, livestock basic care and bull raising to help with the management of banditry and cattle rustling. From the results, the study therefore suggests further studies on the influence of perceived community livelihoods on the management of banditry and cattle rustling menace. In addition, the study found that the independent variables (cultural practices, economic practices and social practices) could only explain 83.0% of banditry and cattle rustling menace management in Baringo County, Kenya. This study therefore suggests further research on other factors affecting banditry and cattle rustling menace management in Baringo County, Kenya.