Cattle raiders kill at least 30 in Kenya attack

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Livestock rustlers have killed at least 30 people in Kenya's remote Turkana region where clashes over scarce pasture and water resources often flare, a local leader said on Saturday.

Heavily armed raiders from the Pokot community attacked the Turkana, about 300 kilometers (185 miles) north of the capital Nairobi, and made away with at least 700 animals, area legislator Josphat Nanok told Reuters.

"The place where the killing happened is very remote and can only be accessed by aircraft. So far the police have not even been to the scene to get the facts on the ground," Nanok told Reuters of the attack on Tuesday night.

Castle rustling is common among pastoral communities living in the sparsely populated north and northeastern parts of Kenya which has hostile terrain that is difficult for security personnel to patrol.

Competition for scarce resources such as water and pasture land has fuelled the attacks.

Nanok said five critically injured people were transferred to Lodwar general hospital in Turkana.

Police were not immediately available to comment.

(Reporting by Wangui Kanina, editing by Mary Gabriel)