Tension remains high in the insecurity-prone Kerio Valley following the Sunday afternoon incident, where armed bandits fatally shot four people, including three school children.

Scores of others were injured during the 3 pm incident at Tot in Marakwet East and are admitted to Kapsowar Mission Hospital and the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH), Eldoret. Some of the injured still had bullets lodged in their bodies as they were rushed to the hospital.

The incident has sparked an exodus from the area as residents flee for their lives even as they plead with the government to beef up security in the region.

Porous valley

The death brought to six, the number of people killed in a span of 48 hours and 170 killed in the past nine months in the porous valley.

Local leaders led by Elgeyo-Marakwet Deputy Governor Wesley Rotich and Marakwet East MP Kangogo Bowen yesterday condemned the attack and called on the government to address the runaway menace once and for all.

“The valley is bleeding. It is no longer safe. We demand for urgent and quick intervention by the national government. For how long will we continue losing innocent lives for the government to act,?”asked Rotich,” who visited the injured in hospital.

Bowen wondered what the motive of the bandits could be as they have elected to indiscriminately shoot even school going children.

“Itekuwa kama ya panya. (Life in Kerio Valley has become like that of a rat). Our pleas to the government have fallen on deaf ears. How many more lives will we loose for our cries to be heard,?” asked Bowen.

People Daily has established that during the Sunday incident, the children were at their school playground when the armed bandits who are said to have been in their hundreds attacked them. The bandits also made away with more than 400 livestock.

The attack came barely a day after another person from the neighbouring Sibow village was fatally shot next to Tot Police Station. He was laid to rest on Saturday.

Merciless killing

Elgeyo-Marakwet Senator Kipchumba Murkomen said that it was clear that the situation was getting out of hand, even as he hit out at the national government for doing little to alleviate the residents’ suffering in the hands of the ruthless bandits.

“I am devastated by the merciless killing of our people in Kerio Valley. If it doesn’t prick the conscience of the national government then nothing will,” said Senator Murkomen.

The killings and displacements have been going on despite the government declaring war on bandits wreaking havoc in the region.

Rift Valley Regional Coordinator Maalim Mohammed last week concluded a series of peace meetings with county security teams from Turkana, West Pokot and Baringo counties, where he ordered civilians in possession of illegal firearms to surrender them in the next 30 days or the government rolls out a disarmament exercise in the region.

According to the administrator, runaway insecurity on the border of the three counties was as a result of illegal firearms in he hands of civilians.