From my habit of making small talk with everyone i meet. I once met a pokot watchman called Luka in Nakuru who during his youth, had once tried being cattle rustler area ya MT Elgon. This is his story on his one and only cattle raid.
They had spent days in the forest before the raid, only venturing out of the forest at night to map out the surrounding farms . Equally important was to count cattle each homestead possessed and weighing out the ease of stealing. After reconnaissance they would then pass by one homestead and steal a single goat or sheep na kurudi nayo kwa forest for food. With time goats were no longer available, because villagers begun to believe that kuna “chui” inabeba mbuzi and begun locking goats in the houses.
It so happened, in their search for food, having not had a proper meal for days, they stumbled upon a homestead where a woman was cooking ugali kwa ile jikoni ya ushago ya kando ya nyumba, while the rest of the family was in the main house. They waited in the darkness until when the woman left the kitchen. Luka rushed into the kitchen, lay a kitambaa on the ground, flipped the ugali on the kitambaa and rushed out with the ugali moto.
Back at their hiding place, in their feeding frenzy of ugali kavu, they watched as the lady walked back carrying a bunch of fresh vegetables. She stood rooted at the door, when she saw the empty sufuria. After quick searches under the table and everywhere she could think of, she was about to sound an alarm when a one rustler approached her.
“Wewe mama, pika ugali ingine ama tukuibie hiyo ngombe yako moja, na tukiskia kelele kwa hii boma usiku, hii ngombe tunakujia”
The woman was left trembling as she poured fresh water to cook another ugali for her family.
Luka always swore, he’d never had a better meal, his whole life . He kept insisting;
“@maasai 101, ni kama ugali ilikuwa na sukari.” I guess it happens when one is hungry.
Due to continuous rustling of the farms near the forest, they had to travel a longer distance to get to cattle. On the particular night of the raid having just rounded up 20 cattle, walichelewa due to distance as day break approached. The target was to always be deep into the forest before the sun came up. Thus ngombe zilikuwa zinapigwa zikimbie inainua mkia juu na kuongeza speed. Ukiangalia macho inakaa ya red kama macho nyanya.
It was on their way back to the forest, where they met an early rising boy in school uniform. On his hands he carried a pail of milk for delivery as he heads to school.
On quick thinking, kijana ya shule akageuzwa na kupigwa kiboko ya mgongo kama ngombe and within no time akakuwa part of the herd. leaving the boy there would have been a risk no one was willing to take. The boy already knew there were raiders around, the general direction they were headed so sounding an alarm would have meant doom for them.
Walikimbiza kijana wa shule mpaka akatoa ulimi inje. On getting to the edge of the forest forest, wakaendelea tena till when they saw that relealising the boy was safe for them. By the time he’d manage to come back and inform the villagers, they would be long gone.
Once in the forest it took them 2 days to get to uganda and sell the cattle. Even selling the cattle cheaply at 10k each meant 200k for 5 raiders, kila mtu anaenda home na 40k for a weeks work. That is why cattle rustling never ends, most veteran raiders stop due to age ukishindwa kukimbia.
Coming to think of it, fitness ya watoto wa ushago ni mzuri sana, hakuna kijana wa tao anaweza kukimbia for so long. Wamezoea play station na pizza but that was one lucky or unlucky boy.
