MITIGATE THE THREAT OF

CATTLE RUSTLING VIA THE

USE OF TECHNOLOGY
• A cattle rustling is the act of forceful raiding of livestock from
one community by another using guns and leaving behind destruction
of property and loss of lives.

• This concept should be understood alongside cattle raids which

involve stealing livestock from one community by another without
destroying property or killing people.
• Cattle rustling have become a commercial entity along the boundaries of
pastoral communities and stolen livestock are never recovered.

• The actors in cattle rustling involve politically linked and power

wielding personalities sometimes not pastoralist.

• The cattle rustling menace has left the Marakwet and Pokot to bear the
brunt of destruction and murder.
Livestock owners in Kenya
lose up to $30 million
yearly owing to an upsurge
in cattle theft among the
country’s pastoral
communities.
SOLUTION
 NLIMS
National Livestock Information Management System
1. NLIMS is based on two technologies namely live GPS tracking and IOT
QR ear tags
2. Each Livestock will be tagged with a QR ear tag from birth
3. The tag will contain all the details of the cow and the owners
4. Some cows within the herd will be fitted with solar GPS trackers the
rest will have dummy ones for the purpose of fooling the rustlers
PROCESS FLOW
 1 2 3

Every livestock farmer will be All licensed slaughter houses will be

All livestock in the herd will be
registered into the NLIMS. The details registered into NLIMS it will contain
registered into the NLIMS using QR ear
will contain full names, ID#, herd size, data on the owners, employees, size
tags. The information will contain the
breed, farm location with GPS map and capacity of the slaughterhouse
livestock age, breed, gender, marks, etc
link,etc as well as all relevant information.

Geo fence and live tracking as Law enforcement track, trace

Some livestock within the herd 6
will be fitted with a solar GPS the livestock graze 5 and recover stolen livestock
tracker.

4
• No need to put GPS trackers on the entire stock

• Out of 1000, perhaps 50 can have the GPS trackers

• The rest will have dummy ones

• This will make it more affordable to the farmers

• Since rustlers move with speed, they will not have time to take one or two cows, they take
the entire stock

• It will be impossible for them to tell which is real and which is dummy as all of them look the
same
• All livestock to be tagged from birth by the use of QR ear tags

• The tags will contain a UID for each animal with details of the owner, medical history, etc.

• This information can be edited by county officials over the life span of the livestock

• No livestock shall be sold without true verification of ownership

• No livestock will be accepted at any slaughterhouse without true verification of

ownership

• Whenever an animal is sold, the county officials will transfer ownership using the
provided app and the QR will contain details of the new owner as well as the previous
owner

• This is similar to vehicle identification via the VIN number

• With this is place, cattle rustling will become obsolete as it will no longer be lucrative.
• Only registered livestock will be accepted by the slaughterhouses
• The rest will be rejected (No value in rustling) No tag, no slaughter
• Identification will reveal the details of the owner including the age, breed, gender, medical history etc. of
the livestock.
• Government will issue mandate that all livestock to be registered and tagged within a certain time period
maybe 6-12 months.
• After this period expires, livestock without ear tags will be confiscated by government and sold in public
auctions
• Some livestock will have live GPS trackers with geo-fence while the rest will have dummy ones as decoys
• True traceability from farm to fork.
OTHER USECASES
1. County officers
can check the
health of the
livestock
2. Track vaccinations
3. Update the age
and or any
medical conditions
4. Update injuries or
marks
5. Track diseases
6. Change ownership
after sales
verification
 Conclusion
1. The benefits of a real time GPS tracking system to mitigate cattle rustling are enormous

2. Through geo fencing features, alerts will ensure animals are do not get out of their safe zones without notice.

3. Law enforcement will have real-time data to track, trace and recover the stolen animals in time.

4. By deploying decoy trackers, all animals can be covered making it impossible for raiders to distinguish which are real and which are
decoys thus acting as a major deterrent towards the vice.

5. Analytical data will be available to gauge the impact of cattle grazing on global warming via the GPS data.

6. The registration and identification of livestock via QR ear tags is key towards mitigating cattle rustling

7. Track and trace from farm to fork

8. Enhance disease surveillance in livestock

9. Enhance security within the pastoralist communities

Data Lock Ltd
2nd flr, AAYMCA Building, State House Crescent, Off
State House Avenue
Nairobi.
0721511404
info@datalock.co.ke
www.datalock.co.ke