Four killed in panga attack on minister

Four people were killed and several others seriously injured on Thursday when a gang of youth wielding machetes attacked a meeting being addressed by Fisheries Minister Amason Kingi at Mtwapa, Kilifi County.

One of the dead is the minister’s bodyguard, AP Constable Harrison Maitha, who suffered serious cuts in the head and was dead on arrival at Jocham hospital in Mombasa.

The other three were the raiders, lynched by angry residents who grouped after the attack and engaged the gang.

Mr Kingi escaped unhurt, but Kilifi senate seat aspirant Stewart Madzayo was hacked on the head during the raid that scuttled their meet-the-people tour.

Mr Kingi, who is the Magarini MP, is aspiring to be governor of Kilifi County.

Witnesses said that the group of youths quietly slipped into the crowd as the leaders addressed supporters.

But just as the meeting was about to end, they started screaming and unleashed the sharp machetes hidden in their clothes and attacked the crowd.

Constable Maitha, and several others in the crowd, formed a ring around the minister to shield him from the attackers.

“The rally was going on well and I was seated next to the minister. All of a sudden, two people jumped in front, whipped out shining pangas from their jackets and charged at us.

“Sensing danger, I kicked the table at them. This is when they assumed that I was protecting the minister and came straight for me. I am lucky to be alive,” said Mr Madzayo when the Nation found him at Nopric Medical Centre where he was rushed after being attacked.

The back of his head was heavily bandaged following a panga cut. His clothes were drenched in blood.

The gang set on Mr Maitha, inflicting the fatal wounds.

A witness told the Nation that the minister’s bodyguard whipped out his pistol when he saw the gang remove their pangas and charge at the minister.

However, one of the attackers struck him with a panga, severing his right thumb and causing him to drop the pistol.

The attacker then set on him with the panga, cutting him several times on the head.

As well-wishers rushed the badly injured Maitha to hospital, others ran off with the minister to safe location in town.

But immediately afterwards, the irate residents of Mtomwandoni regrouped and counter-attacked, killing three of the attackers as the rest fled.

Chanting MRC slogans

Other witnesses said the attackers were chanting Mombasa Republican Council slogans.

Speaking to the Nation later, Mr Kingi said he had been invited to the meeting by youth in the area to discuss development and also to sell his governor manifesto to locals.

He said the meeting started peacefully, but in the middle, a group of youths armed with machetes disrupted the meeting and in the process his body guard was killed.

Speaking on phone from Jocham Hospital after viewing Mr Maitha’s body, Mr Kingi said there was need to double police in Coast Province following increasing cases of insecurity.

“I am safe, but it is a pity that we are losing lives every day. We lost a number of people in Kaloleni the other day; that is why I will move and order more police to be deployed to avert such cases in future as we approach the electioneering period,” Mr Kingi said.

Coast Provincial Criminal Investigations officer Ambrose Munyasia said: “Our preliminary reports indicate three people have died in the incident. But we have deployed more officers who will investigate and establish if there are more casualties.”

The attack comes a day after a Daily Nation report revealed the mushrooming of militia groups across the Coast region, some of them having political agendas. Read (Kaloleni death toll rises to 15)

Last week, a group killed a villager who had led the police to their hideout, triggering a revenge attack by the villagers during which they killed 14 gang members.