15 May 2008: New Hope to Combat Cattle Rustling in East Africa

Cattle rustling continue to threaten human security throughout East Africa, but countries affected have in most cases been conducting national rather than regional initiatives to combat the problem.

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Today marks the launch of the Mifugo project in Nairobi with the participation of the five signatories to the Draft Protocol on the Prevention, Combating, and Eradication of Cattle Rustling in Eastern Africa: Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.

The Mifugo project (Mifugo is Swahili for livestock) is being launched jointly by the Nairobi Office of the Institute for Security Studies, in partnership with East Africa Police Chiefs Cooperation Organization (EAPCCO). It has been established to facilitate the implementation process of the draft protocol.

The project and the eventual implementation of the protocol mark a paradigm shift towards seeking sustainable solutions to the problem of cattle rustling. The following points illustrate this paradigm shift:

The draft protocol will be a legally binding instrument once signed, ratified and domesticated by the member states. This implies that the implementing member states are committed to addressing the problem of livestock theft from a regional perspective.
The implication of a regional approach is that while cattle rustling may be tolerated at the community level, at the national and regional level implementing member states will be taking serious measures against those who practice it.
By criminalizing livestock theft, the implementing member states will to a large extent be encouraging and promoting commercial livestock keeping and serious trade in the industry. This might not have been the case in the past as potential large-scale herders may have been scared of cattle rustling.
Most important, seeking redress to the problem of cattle rustling will also be demanding a paradigm shift in the allocation of resources to arid and semi arid lands so that pastoralist regions will receive a fair deal in terms of developing infrastructure with the view to improve areas that appear otherwise marginalized.
As a multi faceted approach towards the problem of cattle rustling, the full implementation of the protocol will address issues of insecurity nurtured by the proliferation of small and light weapons and in the process enhance human security and promote development.
The component on branding, marking and tracking will also play a significant role in dissuading potential cattle rustlers. The implementation process will seek to harmonize traditional mechanisms with modern technology as fears have been expressed regarding compromising the quality of skin when marks are feasibly branded on livestock.

The Mifugo project will be launched as a culmination of a regional stakeholders conference this week. The meeting is expected to achieve a series of outcomes. Firstly it seeks to establish roles and interest levels of stakeholders in the process of addressing livestock theft and attendant violence; secondly to identify potential partners in the implementation, ratification and domestication of the Draft EAPCCO Protocol; thirdly, to harmonize ongoing initiatives while seeking to identify existing gaps, profile the capacity needs of the stakeholders and seek ways of empowering them to support the implementation process and fourthly to develop a resource databank out of the network and expertise drawn from the stakeholders.

The goodwill so far expressed by the member states and their participation at the regional conference is a good and positive indication that they are committed to addressing human security through a multi-faceted approach.

Augusta Muchai, Mifugo Project Head – ISS Nairobi Office