Isiolo widows pick up the pieces after losing husbands to bandits

Zeinab Mohammed, who hails from Kilimani in Isiolo County, is a heartbroken woman. The pain of widowhood can be seen on her face.

Her life took a turn for the worse on April 8, 2022, after her husband was gunned down by bandits.

The late Ibrahim Ali was in a group of several men who were pursuing stolen camels when armed bandits, suspected to have crossed over from neighbouring Samburu County, shot and killed him and eight others. Four other residents were left nursing gunshot wounds.

Some of those killed were gunned down within their homes and others in grazing fields, with security agencies then saying the criminals struck the area thrice.

“He (Ali) was herding some goats when he was informed about the theft and joined other residents in the recovery mission. I last spoke to him around 2 pm and he told me they were still trailing the animals,” Zeinab told The Eastleigh Voice.

“I would hours later suspect that something was amiss when his phone went off. Residents who rushed to the scene confirmed my doubts. I lost a friend, pillar, and the family’s sole breadwinner. His death robbed us of our livelihood.”

A widow, Zeinab was left with four children to take care of, taking up all the responsibilities of her late husband, including fending for the family and paying school fees for her children.

Unlike when her husband was alive, food is now hard to come by, and her children are frequently sent home for fees. One is in junior secondary school while the rest are in lower primary.

“We can hardly afford three meals a day because I do not have a stable source of income. We have been living a day at a time. The children miss their father and I am forced to lie to them every time they ask me where he is,” she told The Eastleigh Voice at Safi livestock market where she sells goats.

The returns from the business, she said, are not enough to sustain her family as she mostly sells only two goats in three days. She makes between Sh500 and Sh1,000 from a goat depending on its weight.

Similar tale

Another widow is 35-year-old Kaltum Osman, who also lost her husband, Hussein Billow, in the same incident.

Like Zeinab, Kaltum has been selling goats to fend for her seven children, three of whom are in secondary school.

“I have been struggling to provide for the family. It pains me that an innocent person who used to work hard to ensure I and the children were okay lost his life in the hands of bandits,” she said amid tears.

(From left) Widows Kaltum Osman, Fatuma Dahiyow and Zeinab Mohammed at the Safi livestock market on April 18, 2024. (Photo: Waweru Wairimu)

“Sometimes, we sleep on empty stomachs but amid endless challenges, we are thankful to God for bringing us this far.”

Kaltum accused the government of delayed response to attacks and of failing to carry out a security operation within the LMD-Mlango-Oldonyiro road where hundreds of lives have been lost in the past few years.

“Why is it that livestock theft and attacks have not ended even after the Anti-Stock Theft Unit (ASTU) was set up in the Mlango area?” she wondered, adding that a sustained security operation would rid the region of criminals and illegal firearms that are used to unleash terror on innocent residents.

Kaltum wonders why criminals who raid, maim, kill, and steal livestock are never arrested. This, she says, is causing families of victims more pain as the majority desire to see the assailants put behind bars for their actions.

Apart from the proliferation of sophisticated illegal firearms, collusion between criminals and rogue residents living along the Isiolo-Samburu border remains a major impediment to efforts by security agencies to contain banditry in the region.

Fatuma Dahiyow is another widow who is trying to pick up her life after her husband’s killing nearly one-and-a-half years ago.

Mohammed Dahir, a renowned businessman, was shot dead together with a rider who was ferrying him on a motorbike to Ngarendare market where he was to buy camels.

The armed criminals flagged the pair down along the LMD-Mlango-Oldonyiro stretch and robbed the businessman of Sh300,000 and the rider of Sh15,000 before killing them.

Fatuma, who was behind her husband in a vehicle that was to carry the animals, was also robbed of Sh200,000 and was nearly raped by the criminals who vanished on seeing some oncoming vehicles.

Collusion

It was suspected that criminals were colluding with livestock sellers who shared information about animal buyers.

“We have been living a miserable life. I am unable to take my son who completed Form Four to college. His younger brother is a Form Four candidate,” Fatuma says.

No suspect has ever been arrested in connection to the killing of her husband.

Interior CS Kithure Kindiki arrives for the graduation ceremony for 138 National Police Reservists at Alamach in Burat, Isiolo, on March 14, 2024. (Waweru Wairimu)

More than 100 people were killed in banditry attacks across Isiolo County in 2022 alone, the majority of them being within Mlango, which has for long been a grazing reserve for the Somali, Turkana, and Borana communities.

Interior CS Kithure Kindiki has twice assured residents that the ongoing security operation in parts of the neighbouring Samburu East constituency would be extended to Isiolo, but it is yet to happen.

A request by some Isiolo and Samburu MCAs for more time to share names of suspects involved in criminal activities and encourage the surrender of stolen livestock before an operation kicks off is believed to have delayed government action.

Some of the criminals cross over disguised as herders, only to later unleash terror on local communities, robbing women of their husbands and children of their parents and impoverishing them.

And while the ASTU camp in Mlango was expected to contain cattle rustling, livestock thefts continue to dash residents' hopes, with some calling for an overhaul of the officers attached to the unit.

Isiolo County Commissioner Geoffrey Omoding said the government is keen on eradicating the menace along the stretch and that relative calm has been achieved since the ASTU camp was set up in Mlango.

For the widows in Isiolo, President William Ruto’s administration owes them compensation for the deaths of their husbands.

“It is strenuous raising a family single-handedly. I would be so happy if I and other widows who lost their husbands in the hands of bandits are supported to educate our children,” Kaltum said.