One injured as bandits attack NGO vehicle in West Pokot
Police officers on patrol at Kambi Karaya on the Kitale-Lodawr highway. Bandits attacked an NGO vehicle on March 30, 2017 at Lami Nyeusi, a few kilometres from Kambi Karaya, and injured one person. PHOTO | OSCAR KAKAI | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- An eye witness said the armed bandits stopped the vehicle and started shooting.
- The incident happened after police officers who were escorting the vehicles from Turkwel passed the area.
- Mr Kithinji said that security will be beefed up along the road and all vehicles will be escorted.
Suspected bandits Thursday evening attacked a vehicle belonging to Mercy Corps, a non-governmental organisation, in West Pokot injuring one person.
The vehicle was carrying officers who were coming from a peace training in Turkwel when the incident happened at Lami Nyeusi on the Kitale-Lodwar highway.
The attackers laid ambush on the vehicle which was carrying five Mercy Corps staff where one person was seriously injured and the windscreen broken.
An eye witness told Mr Richard Todosia, who was in another vehicle some 400 meters away, that the armed bandits stopped the vehicle and started shooting.
ARMED MEN
“The two armed men approached the vehicle from both sides and when it stopped they opened fire and one officer was injured in the leg,” said Todosia.
He said that the injured officer was rushed to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret for treatment.
Confirming the incident by phone, Pokot Central Deputy County Commissioner Geoffrey Kithinji said the incident happened after police officers who were escorting the vehicles from Turkwel passed the area.
“The police were on the road but the bandits attacked the vehicle after realizing that the police officers had passed and gone towards Marich,” he said.
Mr Kithinji said that security will be beefed up along the road and all vehicles will be escorted.
He added that police officers are pursuing the bandits.
“Police officers have been deployed in the area. We shall also start doing full patrols along the road. The perpetrators of the crime must be flushed out of their hideout,” said Kithinji.
