Introduce digital ID for livestock to control cattle rustling

So we lost lives in Kapedo and earned ourselves stern warnings and security operations from government. Why does this script sound so familiar? 

We played it a few years ago in the Baragoi attacks and we are likely to play it again sooner rather than later, in another cattle rustling episode in the “North”.

The North is what the colonialists dubbed the Northern Frontier District. It stretched across the pastoral communities of the Turkana, West Pokot, Baringo, Samburu, Marsabit, Wajir and Mandera Counties. These are big counties blessed with endless tracts of land, hills and valleys full of both danger and opportunity.

Danger awaits those citizens whose only mistake was to be born into their prevailing harsh conditions and circumstances.

Cattle rustling or “replenishing stock” as one of their Members of Parliament would want to call it, is a way of life in these environs. It comes in handy when dowry needs to be paid, or simply when young warriors need to practice and polish their raiding skills.

TESTING CONTINUES

On the other hand, opportunity awaits leaders who have turned cattle rustling into a commercially viable, booming business. Various reports increasingly point fingers at political leaders as the masterminds behind recent cattle-rustling episodes. 

They are suspected to have instituted an elaborate logistical mechanism for rapidly acquiring and transporting hundreds of cattle to slaughterhouses located in the nearest urban centres, and this perhaps explains why the guns in the “Killing Fields” of the North are not about to be silenced.

Technologies that can stop cattle rustling have existed for close to fifteen years now, but, unfortunately, the decision to implement them lies with a leadership that seems to be benefiting from the atrocities.

The Livestock Identification and Trace-Back System (LITS) has been used in Botswana since 2004 and has cut down cattle rustling incidences by 80 per cent. In Kenya, it remains in the testing phase for as long as donors continue with the funding and the leaders continue to benefit from the status quo.

SILENCING THE GUNS

LITS is a simple system that uses Radio Frequency Identification  (RFID) tags to uniquely identify individual livestock in the herd.

In the event of cattle rustling, cows or goats can be traced back using tag readers that are strategically located at border points, slaughterhouses or hotspots like Baragoi and Kapedo, among other likely places.

Such a system would act as a deterrent and eliminate the incentive to raid neighbours’ cattle, given that eventually identifying and tracing the location of the stolen livestock would be so much simpler and almost guaranteed.  

Most thieves are clever enough to weigh the risks and avoid stealing assets that have no disposable value.

This technology might be the only way to silence the guns in the "Killing Fields” of the North.

Furthermore, the increased traceability of our livestock will position Kenya as a potential beef exporter to the European Union, the Middle East and other international markets. So, effectively, we can kill two opportunities with one technology — but only if the spirit is willing.

Beyond the spirit, we are fortunate enough to have it scribbled down on record. Tucked away under the Security chapter, the Jubilee Manifesto proclaims loudly, for anyone who cares to read, that they will “introduce bolus technology to deal with cattle rustling and other forms of livestock theft”.

Indeed, it’s been less than two years since the Jubilee administration took over, so we can afford to be forgiving. However, the clock is less than forgiving because it surely and steadily ticks away towards 2017.

Mr Walubengo is a lecturer at the Multimedia University of Kenya, Faculty of Computing and IT. Twitter:@jwalu Email: [email protected]