'Somali bandits' strike Mwingi village again, kill three

Mwingi Central MP Joe Mutambu consoles victims and residents of Ukasi in Kitui County on February 21, 2016 after attacks by suspected Somali bandits that left two people dead. The bandits struck again and killed three more people. PHOTO | KITAVI MUTUA | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Hours earlier, the regional commissioner had told residents that everything will be done to ensure security is restored in the areas bordering Garissa and Tana River counties.
  • Mwingi Central MP Joe Mutambu claimed there was a political motive to the killings.

Suspected Somali bandits have struck Ukasi in Mwingi again, killing three more people and injuring five others.

The latest killings bring to 31 the number of lives lost in the wave of senseless violence in Mwingi since April last year.

The heavily armed bandits raided Kathungu shopping centre on the Mwingi–Garissa highway and sprayed residents with bullets, just three hours after a high-powered security team, led by Eastern Regional Commissioner Wycliffe Ogallo, addressed a meeting in the area and assured locals of safety.

DIED ON SPOT

Two of the victims died on the spot in the Tuesday 5pm incident while the third succumbed to injuries while being treated at Mwingi Level Four Hospital

At least five other people were nursing gunshot wounds at the hospital.

Area Chief Benjamin Mui wondered how the attackers managed to get their way through a buffer zone of heavy security personnel deployed in the area to gain access to the market.

Families that fled their homes due to rising insecurity in the area are camping at the market.

Mr Mui said residents’ hopes that calm would be restored after the visit by security bosses were dashed by the second attack.

“There is a police camp three kilometres from the market and people are wondering how the bandits managed to come from the same direction to attack and escape without a response from security officers,” he said.

KILLINGS

Hours earlier, the regional commissioner had told residents that everything would be done to ensure security is restored in the areas bordering Garissa and Tana River counties, including an operation in the nearby Kora Game Reserve to flush out the foreigners who are in the country illegally.

“The government will start recruiting police reservists among the residents to boost their security as we conduct operation to mop up all illegal arms being used to terrorise innocent people,” Mr Ogallo said.

Terrified residents told the Nation that the attackers collected the spent cartridges before escaping into the nearby thicket.

Mwingi Central MP Joe Mutambu alleged that there was more to the killings than ordinary banditry and questioned the government’s resolve to stop the attacks on innocent civilians.

PURSUE BANDITS

The MP claimed there was deliberate laxity and an unwillingness on the part of government to contain the menace as no single arrest had been made or a shootout reported by officers who pursue the bandits after every attack.

“If one elephant is killed, government mobilises helicopters to pursue the poachers but in Mwingi, people are being terrorised daily and nothing is being done to protect them despite police choppers lying idle at Wilson airport,” he said.

Mr Mutambu claimed there was a political motive to the killings and said the bandits were collecting the spent cartridges to conceal the identity of the guns they were using.

DOZENS MAIMED

Dozens more have been maimed and hundreds of families displaced in the violence that is threatening to get out of hand.

Six primary schools in Ukasi have remained closed since January after hundreds of families fled the area and put up makeshift camps following the killing of four people on Christmas Day last year.

The closed learning institutions are Ngooni, Engamba, Kasiluni, Kathungu Inyanzai and Sosoma.

Two other people were killed on Monday and scores of houses torched when the suspected Somali bandits attacked a village at the volatile border of Kitui and Tana River counties

LEASE PACTS

While assuring the locals of their security, Mr Ogallo, the regional commissioner, said three police camps had been established on the borders between the three counties and a contingent of security personnel deployed to contain banditry.

The senior administrator cautioned residents against entering into lease agreements for grazing pastures and water with strangers without involving the government.