Five people have died after being attacked by bandits in separate incidences in Baringo, Elgeyo Marakwet, and Samburu counties.
In one instance, bandits ambushed and killed a 59-year-old man in Baringo North and two others in Marakwet East before driving away a herd of cattle.
The man was shot as he tended to his livestock near Yatya Primary School, while the two were ambushed and fatally shot in the Liter area in East Marakwet.
According to Citizen Digital, this led to demonstrations in Kabarnet and Marigat towns, where locals lashed out at the government for failing to stem the tide of banditry.
“It is very unfortunate that for all these years, problems of insecurities have been happening. Unfortunately, the local leaders have never been talking to each other. They were busy talking to each other through the media,” Ahmed Hussein, a community leader, said.
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Relatives were gathering outside the Samburu County Referral Hospital on the opposite side of the Rift, attempting to make sense of the bandits' Wednesday night attack on Lolmolog hamlet, which resulted in the death of their relations.
After shooting and killing a man and his son, the robbers fled with 150 cattle, which were subsequently found by a group of security guards who drove the outlaws away.
“Majangili wamevamia familia na ndugu yangu mmoja marehemu sahizi...waliingilia yeye usiku kwa nyumba wakamuua papo hapo, wakapiga mtoto risasi, ambaye tulifikisha hospitali alikata roho akitibiwa. Kwa sasa wote wamelala hapa kwa mochari Maralal, baba na mtoto wake mdogo,” said Shadrack Lesoipa, a brother to the deceased.
According to Samburu police boss Thomas Ototo, authorities have heightened alert levels in the area and asked residents to be vigilant.
The impacted communities have expressed doubts about the government's resolve to combat banditry in the area and how, more than a year after the government designated the area unsafe and disturbed and started a security operation to bring about calm, the issue still exists.
