Boundary dispute claims three lives in Wajir

By Adow Jubat

WAJIR, KENYA: Three people were killed in Wajir County on Tuesday afternoon by attackers from a rival clan over clan boundary dispute.

The three men from the member of Degodia clan, were killed by an armed assailants suspected to be from the rival Garre community at Ogaralle village in Tarbaj district at around 10.30 am.

The deceased were among labourers working on a road project involving clearing of bushes on 25 kilometers stretch road linking Wajir to Mandera County. The project is funded by the Wajir county government.

Confirming the incident, Tarbaj OCPD Soita Mwanja said the three men were shot at a close range after they were ambushed by their armed attackers believed to be from the Garre clan who are opposed to the progress of the road project that links Mandera and Wajir counties.

He said the bodies were taken to Tarbaj police station by security personnel and later buried in accordance to Islamic practice, after postmortem.

He said combined security forces were deployed in the area to pursue the criminals, whose action was bent on reigniting a fresh bloody inter-clan fighting between two communities who have been staying in peace since a peace pact was signed last year.

The member of the Garre community on Mandera side are accusing the Wajir county government of provocative moves by taking the road project 5 kilometers stretch into their ancestral land in another county.

Early last year over sixty people were killed, hundred maimed and tens of thousands displaced from their homes, after fighting pitting the two communities, started in Mandera county and later spilled over to the neigbouring Wajir county and lasted for six months before amicably peace deal was signed.