Two people have died in Jimo East Location, Nyakach Sub-County, following clashes between two communities living along the border of Kisumu and Kericho counties.
A house was also torched while nine other people are recuperating at Nyakach-Sub-County Hospital after sustaining spear and arrow injuries in the Saturday night incident.
After the tension rose, several families spent the night outside while others set up camp at Ndori Primary School.
One of the affected locals, Samwel Alolo, said that tension began to rise on Thursday as a result of a youth-led raid on Kasaye village in Jimo East Location of Nyakach, where they made off with herds of goats while alleging that one of the area's livestock had been taken.
Alolo claimed that attempts to track down the goats, pushed into the Kericho County neighbourhood of Soin Sigowet, were greeted with retaliatory attacks, which led to the deaths.
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He claimed that many young people carrying arrows stormed the community, causing havoc in their wake while stealing flocks of goats, chickens, and ducks.
Alolo accused the police stationed at the border's Anti-Stock-Theft Unit of being lax and failing to control the local criminals who steal animals.
Since January, he alleged that 48 herds of cattle and more than 100 goats have been taken in the region since January, and all efforts to find them have been ineffective.
To reduce tension and reestablish tranquility, several police officers from various units have been deployed in the area.
The acting Kisumu County Commissioner, Hussein Alassow Hussein, instructed the security personnel on both sides of the border to enhance patrols and track down those guilty for the attacks.
He continued by saying that the cops have been instructed to work closely with the chiefs to track down the animals that have been abducted and make sure they are returned to their proper owners.
“We are making every effort to ensure that all the goats and cows that have been stolen in this area are recovered. We also want you to produce the one cow stolen from the other side so that we can return it,” he said.
Further, he asked the locals to remain calm, assuring them that the government was doing everything possible to restore peace in the area.
Kisumu County Governor Prof. Anyang Nyong’o condemned the killings, calling out the government security agencies for failing to contain the tension in the area.
“We condemn in the strongest terms possible the killing of two residents of Nyakach. These people did not deserve to die over conflicts that could be resolved through dialogue,” he said.
In a statement to the media, Nyong’o blamed local security agencies for their failure to detect the looming fights.
“The national government must have received some intelligence about the looming fights and should have nipped it in the bud,” he said.
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