Suspected cattle rustlers kill 45 in northwest Kenya - administrator

ISIOLO, Kenya (Reuters) - Suspected cattle rustlers ambushed and killed at least 45 people in a village in northwest Kenya, then drove away hundreds of livestock, a regional administrator said.

Military officers and police were pursuing the gunmen who raided the village of Nadome on the border of Turkana and Pokot counties, on Monday, Rift Valley regional commissioner Osman Warfa said.

Cattle rustling and clashes over grazing and farming land are common in arid areas of east Africa and have been fuelled by an influx of weapons from Somalia in recent years.

At least 14 people also died in a fight between two pastoralist communities on Monday, on the borders of Kenya's northern Samburu and Marsabit counties, the regional manager for the Kenya Red Cross, Mugambi Gitonga, said.

"We have collected 14 bodies from the two scenes. Nine people with serious injuries have been airlifted to hospital in Nairobi," he added.

Samburu shares borders with Turkana county, which in turn borders South Sudan, Uganda and Ethiopia.

In 2013, more than 100 people were killed when two rival communities fought each other for weeks over land and water resources in the Tana River area. Police said the clashes were incited by a local politician.

(Reporting by Noor Ali; Editing by George Obulutsa and Andrew Heavens)