“In November, it was worse. A chief in the neighbouring location had her husband killed after they attacked him for being tough on criminals in that area. We informed our MP and the District Commissioner. Unfortunately our MP lives in Nairobi and does not feel our pinch. We were then forced to form a vigilante group and a list of suspected cattle thieves was drawn. It is a fact that among those in the list is the Lisana Chief who is blamed for protecting the criminals,” he told IQ4News, adding that the chief survived by a whisker during the Thursday night crackdown.

“Time cut the mob short. They were heading to his home,” he adds. Efforts to reach the Chief were futile as his phone was switched off.

For Peris Odera whose house was burnt, mob justice is not the right way for taming crime.

“When people believe you are a thief, they should investigate even when the police do not cooperate with them. I am now spending night in the cold with children and grand children because they suspected my husband was a cattle rustler. My husband was not even at home when they attacked us. My son lives in Kisumu and they did not spare his house. I fail to understand,” Mrs. Odera states.

But why cattle rustling in a District that does not practice large scale cattle rearing? Tom Otieno, a motorcycle operator says poverty, lack of employment and poor leadership is the cause of their woes.

“Young people lack jobs and the only solution is investing their energy in criminal activities. You can laugh when you are told of cattle rustling in Nyakach. This is not Turkana or Maasailand where they rear cattle in large numbers. Our young people resort to it because of poverty and the leadership in Nyakach that has totally failed. They have failed”.

According to George Orimba, a youth, young people should not expect riches on a silver platter.

“They must work for it. They get married at a very tender age without anything. This is what drives them to thuggery. Recently they stole our goats and took them to the Rift Valley. The Police is not acting and that’s why mob justice is the way out,” he says

The villagers have even consulted witchdoctors in vain.

“In our bid to tame this behavior, we have fallen to the tricks of witchdoctors who told us they can do a nebuchadinezer on the thieves, but we are yet to see anyone eating grass in this village” says Mary Atieno, a salonist at Katito township.

They are calling on the government to beef up security in the area and sack administrators whom they say collude with criminals.