It was horror as gunfire rent the highway

Lamu, Kenya: Survivors have recounted horrifying tales of murder and despair at the hands of militiamen who attacked a bus near Mpeketoni on Friday night in Witu Division, Lamu County.

And for the first time, women were also targeted and one of them, a nurse, was killed. Since the attacks began, the gangs targeted only men save for one woman killed accidentally in Mpeketoni on June 15.

A man and his wife were caught up in the shooting. Kiburugo Unda, a businessman in Kilifi was travelling to his farm in Kipini in Tana River County with his wife when the militiamen stormed the bus.

His wife was shot in the hand and survived to tell the story but her husband was unlucky. As other passengers scrambled out of the windows into the nearby forest, Kiburugo tried to play dead. Suddenly after spraying gunfire at the stationary bus, the militiamen attempted to set the vehicle ablaze prompting Kiburugo to bolt out for dear life. He was promptly shot to death in the back.

The conductor of the ill-fated Tahmeed Bus Services vehicle, Kassim Hamadi, said the attack started as they approached Masha Masha area when it encountered a Toyota Probox car parked in the middle of the highway.

He said next to the car were two men in police uniform who flagged down the bus. “I thought they were police officers on regular check but as we approached where they were, they brandished guns and ordered the driver to make a U-turn,” he recalled, adding the bogus police officers opened gunfire on the bus when it tried to reverse.

“Since I was on the main door, I was forced to run into the bus and look for a place to hide and it was there that I realised I had been shot,” he said. The conductor later climbed and hid into the luggage carrier and covered himself with the passengers’ luggage.

He said some passengers jumped through the windows and fled into the forest as gunfire intensified.

Missing numbers

Hamadi said the bus had more than 20 people and not all can be accounted for.

He is currently at the Mpeketoni sub-district hospital where he was treated for gunshot wounds in the right knee. Neema Idris, a passenger together with her two daughter, had boarded the bus in Mombasa. Neema said she only recalls seeing the bus stop in the middle of nowhere and what followed next was gunshots that lasted more than five minutes.

When the guns went silent, she was frightened and together with her children, they fled into the nearby bushes as they feared the attackers could resurface. She said she spent the night in the forest until early morning when she saw police officers asking passengers who had hid in the forest to come out.

 

“I spent the night in the forest until 6 o’clock in the morning when we saw police officers and we ran to them,” she said.

Simon Ndegwa, who was seated in the front sea, said he saw a car parked in the middle of the road. Ndegwa said before he could notify the driver, they had been flagged down by two people in police uniform.

He said that the two, at a gun point, ordered the driver to make a U-turn and as he was reversing, the bus landed in a ditch.

Forced to hide

Ndegwa said the gangsters ordered the driver out of the bus and shot him dead before spraying the bus with bullets. He was forced to hide under a seat and in the process was shot on his right leg.

He was later taken to Mpeketoni Sub-District Hospital where a bullet logged on his leg was removed. In the end, seven people were killed.

Coast Regional Coordinator Samuel Kilele said a curfew would apply from today where public service vehicles or any other motorists would not be allowed to use the Garsen to Lamu road.

Last evening, Kilele acknowledged the presence of the Kenya Defence Forces in security operations on the ground but denied the military was involved, saying the soldiers are only involved in providing logistics to the police.

Mr Kilele said the killings are “an internal conflict that police are capable of handling”.

“The conflict in Lamu has been a major problem because the criminals we are fighting are local people who live with us,” he said.

Mombasa Senator Hassan Omar said the heavy deployment of security forces appears not to have turned the tide against the killers hence the perception that State security apparatus in Lamu and Tana River have collapsed.

“It is due to lack of strategy in Government and police appear to be overwhelmed by the attackers killing at will,” said Mr Omar. Lamu West MP Julius Ndegwa appreciated the heavy presence of security officers but said they should device more effective tracking measures to stem the raids.

“These people attack and vanish and therefore there is need to come up with effectively tracking system to arrest them. The Government has choppers to trace these killers,” Ndegwa said.

Coast Interfaith Council of Clerics (CICC) expressed concern over continued attacks and called for improvement in intelligence gathering through close working relationship between security agencies and the residents.

“We are concerned that at the moment, there is lack of confidence in the police. The people are not giving police information to enable them arrest criminal gangs and this situation is worrying us,” CICC chairman Father Willybard Lagho said.

— Additional reporting by Patrick Beja, Willis Oketch and Bernard Sanga