A night brawl between two men has left two people dead and several houses torched in Matigari village, Laikipia County.

One of the deceased, Stephen Lukivi Ekero, a father of four, was a tour guide at Masai Mara Game Reserve who had visited his family.

He had left his vehicle at a garage in Nakuru town for mechanical attention.

His wife, Damaris Lukivi, said her husband was about to leave for Nakuru on Monday, June 2, 2025, when a group of people arrived and set their house on fire.

He fled from the burning house, but the attackers caught up with him and killed him instantly.

“I had urged him that we flee from the house together, but he ran back to pick the bag, and it is at that point that the attackers arrived,” the wife said.

He became a victim of the brawl that escalated to inter-communal attacks between Samburu and Turkana that led to looting of home items, burning of houses and stealing of animals.

As of June 4, 2025, many of the families whose houses were destroyed were camping at the Baptist church in Rumuruti town, 15km from Matigari village.

The village is accessed from the Rumuruti-Nanyuki earth road.  

Sarah Akipo, a muguka seller in the village, said on Monday night, two Samburu men arrived at her place wanting to buy the khat.

“They were quarrelling when they arrived and left still squabbling,” Akipo said.

A village elder, Juliet Ekusi Ekir,u said she was called at about 11 pm about the fighting by the two Samburu men.

“I alerted the chief and went back to my house for my own safety,” the village elder said.

In the morning, one of the men was found dead within the village.

The Samburu ganged up and started attacking their Turkana counterparts, accusing them of causing the death of the man because the body was found near the home of the tour guide.

The flare-up was condemned by elders from the Turkana community who said the burning of their homes was a scheme to drive them out of their shambas to create room for the herders.

They said vital documents and children’s school books were destroyed in the burned houses.

A pastor of a Baptist church and a resident of Matigari village, Jackson Taipa, said the death of the first man could not have caused a retaliatory attack had the Samburus cared to find out what had actually caused the death.

“About 200 goats left behind by the families that fled the area have been driven away by people from one community,” Pastor Taipa said.