Tension high after 10 killed in border clashes

Samburu, Kenya: Tension has remained high along the Samburu-Isiolo border where 10 people died following inter-community fighting.

On Wednesday, the Government ruled out cattle rustling as more families came forward claiming their relatives were still missing following the Tuesday ambush.

Gunshots could be heard from inside a game park in Isiolo yesterday as Turkana and Samburu herders engaged in a battle despite the presence of security personnel.

Residents of Ngaremara and sources from police deployed to patrol the Isiolo-Moyale road reported heavy gunfire coming from the direction of the park.

Leruko, the scene of the battle, is inside the park while Ngaremara trading centre is a few metres from the reserve.

The bandits are also reported to be hiding in the neighbouring Samburu Game Reserve.

Officers warned journalists against venturing into the park as angry residents barricaded part of the Isiolo-Moyale road between Eremet and Choka for hours.

Police had a hard time removing boulders erected on the section that stretches for about 15 kilometres as locals protested failure by the Government to protect them.

Near Ngaremara, a matatu heading towards Archers Post in Samburu County was stopped and a secondary school student going home for the holidays was removed from the vehicle and beaten with a club for being from a rival community.

HEAD INJURIES

The student, who sustained serious head injuries, was admitted at the Isiolo Level Five Hospital.

Relatives of those killed came to collect the bodies from the hospital mortuary as two more bodies were brought from the scene.

Peter Lekuleu and John Elikim were among hundreds of residents who flocked the hospital to look for their kin.

The two were disappointed that their four sons were not among those in the hospital morgue or admitted in the wards.

Those who survived the attack said they were ambushed by bandits from Samburu who had on Sunday stole 90 head of cattle from the Isiolo side.

Philip Loyolo, who is admitted at the Isiolo Level Four Hospital with four gunshot wounds, recounted how a group of men armed with G3 and AK47 rifles ambushed them inside the park where they were grazing their livestock.

"We were approaching a water point when we heard a burst of gunfire. Looking across the ridge we saw a group of about 30 people pointing guns at us. They were shooting indiscriminately," he recalled.

Loyolo said he ducked into a thicket when the gunfire intensified but was not lucky as he was shot twice in the hand and left shoulder.

"They thought I was dead as they managed to pick my firearm. We were in the bush until evening when some of our villagers rescued us," said the middle-aged man.

The facility's nursing officer, Lucy Kiambi, said all the four victims admitted had gunshot wounds, with one of them requiring surgery.

Isiolo's security committee led by commissioner  Wanyama Musiambo and police commander Nelson Okiongo held a crisis meeting with village and county government leaders in a bid to diffuse tension between the two rival groups and discourage revenge attacks.

They headed for Ngaremara in the afternoon for a peace meeting that could hardly take place due to the anger from the locals.

GUN BATTLE

Mr Musiambo said the security committee was looking at the possibility of tribal clashes and politics as factors that triggered the gun battle.

"We are piecing evidence from the scene and from what we have, this is not a case of cattle rustling, it is something else. We cannot rule out politics.

"What has baffled us is that the grazing area between the two communities was between 18 and 20 kilometres apart; you wonder how they came in contact with each other. The scene looked a battle ground as six cows had also been shot," he said.

"I can only confirm the bodies that were brought from the scene. Eight people from the Turkana community are confirmed dead,'' he told The Standard by phone.

Sources from the Samburu side reported that two people were killed and six others injured.

Yesterday, the death toll from Isiolo had risen to 10 while one person was reported missing. Most of the killings occurred in Leruko on the Isiolo side.