‘Blunder’ cost officers their lives

A team of security forces and Samburu home guards left the Baragoi Police Station early Saturday morning and drove to Lomirok village.

The village is 20 kilometres West of Baragoi town and is inhabited by Turkanas.

Area police boss Crispin Makhanu had on Thursday told the Nation they were preparing to crackdown on Turkana raiders who had stolen 450 heads of cattle from the Samburus.

The animals were stolen on October 20 and the Samburu County Security team had given the Turkana herders three days to return the animals or face full wrath of the law.

However, on October 30, Samburu herdsmen became impatient and decided to go for their animals in Lomirok village on their own.

But Turkana militias ambushed them immediately they started driving away their cattle. Twelve Samburu herders died in the attack.

Since then, Samburu County Commissioner Wilson Nyakwanga has been conducting peace meetings that leaders from both communities had attended, but eventually hit a deadlock.

So, on Saturday, the security forces moved to Lomirok to recover the stolen cattle.

But Turkana leaders said they made one mistake.

“They came with Samburu home guards, which we could not accept,” a Turkana leader who did not want to identify himself said in a telephone interview on Tuesday.
He claimed that on July 11 last year, security forces came to raid a Turkana settlement at Sarima village with Samburu home guards where 13 people were killed. The killings were blamed on the Samburu.

According to him, on Saturday the Turkana militias positioned themselves by moving away from the village the security forces came to raid.

The officers had already taken the stolen livestock when the militiamen started shooting.

“These policemen don’t know the terrain of this area and so they did not even know where to escape to,” the leader continued.

Additional reporting by Mike Mwaniki and Zadock Angira