Gunmen kill teacher and injure boda boda rider

A primary school teacher was on Wednesday night brutally murdered by a unknown gunmen in Malakisi in Sirisia, Bungoma County.

Twenty-six-year-old Nancy Kirui, a teacher at Okimaru ACK Primary School, was shot several times at her mother’s home in the 7pm incident. The attackers, who escaped on foot, did not take anything from the house.

A boda boda rider who was mistaken to be her brother was also seriously injured in the  incident that has left the whole village in shock.

Nancy’s mother, Jane Cherotich, attributed the killing to a tussle over a piece of land in Mt Elgon that dates back to the 1990s.

LAND DISPUTE

She described her daughter as a peace-loving and hardworking woman.

“I want to say without fear that I attribute the murder of my daughter to close family members. The whole matter here stems from a land that my late husband left in my custody and some family members have been trying to take it away from me,” said the sorrowful Ms Cherotich.

“Killing my daughter is one way of scaring me so that I can surrender the five-acre piece of land to them because my husband died a long time ago.”

Residents and elected leaders accused the police of failure to provide adequate security.

POLICE CONDEMNED

They condemned the incident and called for an overhaul of the security apparatus in the area.

“Kenya is now talking about the 24-hour economy and there is no way we should be told to close our businesses because someone has failed to offer us security. There are people charged with providing us with security and they need to do so,” he said.

He urged the residents to be extra careful and report any suspicious looking people to the relevant authorities.

“We also need to be vigilant and single out the bad elements amongst ourselves. If you come across someone who is a stranger, don’t hesitate to pass the information to the relevant authorities because security starts with us,” he added.

STATE FAILURE

Idi Juma, a resident of Malakisi, said that the incident was not the first of its kind in the area, accusing police of laxity.

“This kind of incident is not the first one to be reported here. Similar ones have been witnessed in the recent past. We have seen such in Tamulega and Sitabich, even though people were not hurt there but this one is the unfortunate one. The most unfortunate thing is that the government has failed to assure us of our security,” he said.

He led other residents in calling for an overhaul of Malakisi Police Station.

“We have a police station less than a kilometre away from the scene of the incident but we are shocked that police from Malaba arrived earlier before our own. The first bullet was fired at 7.20pm and the last one went off at 10.13pm meaning that if police had arrived on time, they could have easily found the culprits,” said Mr Juma.

The body of the deceased was moved to the Bungoma County Referral Hospital mortuary as police detectives launched a probe into the killing.