Kenyan Security Force Kills 30 Rustlers

At least 30 armed youths engaged in ethnic clashes in Isiolo District, Kenya's Eastern Province, were shot dead in a security operation that ended on Tuesday night, sources said in the capital Nairobi Wednesday.

A military source disclosed that the group, which was intercepted in the hilly Erenet area, were shot from a Kenya Army helicopter as it drove away stolen livestock.

However, Isiolo District Commissioner John Chege said it was difficult to establish the number of those killed as the military personnel shot them from the air.

Chege added: "the government must protect the right to own property at all costs and the military was called in to assist us to recover the stolen livestock."

The Kenya army personnel Wednesday handed over recovered livestock to the District Security Committee and elders from the Somali community. The recovered animals, which numbered about 500, were camels, cattle and goats.

It is estimated that 40 people had been killed in the ethnic clashes between Borana and Somali tribesmen near Isiolo over the past few days although the government said only nine had died.

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