Trailblazing nurse who paid the ultimate price in bandit-hit Kerio Valley

A week ago, Salina Jeruto, a nurse attendant at the Endo Mission Hospital in Marakwet East, cheated death by a whisker after bandits raided her home and drove away 40 goats. 

When she saw the raiders, Jeruto, 45, raised her Catholic rosary and asked God to spare her life — something she has been doing for decades when marauding bandits wreaking havoc in the Kerio Valley come calling.

On Tuesday, March 7, 2023, however, she was not lucky. Another group of bandits ambushed her as she was heading home from her farm where she had picked vegetables for the evening meal. They sprayed her with bullets and she died on the spot.

Jeruto was one of two medical workers killed that day, the latest victims of the bandits in the Kerio Valley belt. Her death brought to seven the number of people killed in Elgeyo Marakwet County in four days alone. 

The other health worker was a lab technician, killed at Kapkata in Arror, Marakwet West. The bandits launched simultaneous attacks in Marakwet East and Marakwet West sub-counties.

Bandits' gun jammed

Jeruto’s cousin, Stephen Amumwai, told the Nation how she had escaped death many times, and always, with her rosary clutched in her hands.

“When she was accosted by the raiders on Tuesday, as usual, she had raised the rosary and prayed. 

The bandit’s gun had jammed and the attackers unclogged it. They tried to fire the second shot, which failed, and on the third attempt, the bullet hit her on the leg, with more in the stomach. She dropped dead clutching her rosary,” Amumwai recalled the horrendous Tuesday afternoon attack at Sangach.

Jeruto was a compassionate, versatile, hardworking, and staunchly religious woman, her family said.

“We equated her with menfolk due to the enormity of the tasks she usually undertook. She owned livestock and a crop farm in which she planted bananas, tomatoes, and vegetables, among others,” Amumwai said.

According to Sister Lioba Kibor, who is in charge at Endo  Mission, even when other health workers fled the region because of insecurity, Jeruto stayed put because of her passion to serve the community.

She chose a single life

Jeruto’s family said she chose not to get married but had at least eight children she was taking care of, as well as the elderly, all from disadvantaged backgrounds.

“We have lost one of the most resourceful people in Kerio Valley, whose contribution to the well-being of the locals cannot be gainsaid. She was literally married to her farm, the church, the health facility, and the community because her mission was to change society and we are yet to comprehend why she was killed,” Amumwai, the family spokesman, told Nation.Africa.

Despite having only primary education, Jeruto was a pioneer locally trained midwife in Endo division, after missionaries in 1991 noticed her passion for community service. She rose to become an Endo mission health facility nurse attendant, with 31 years of experience looking after patients.

Her work did not end at the hospital, since the missionaries also trained her to be among the first female catechists in the region, usually visiting villages and evangelising.

“To us, she was a jack of all trades. She executed her work with deftness, passion and a great sense of humility, not one to follow the crowd but to make a difference in any of her assignments. She was simply big-hearted,” said Sr Kibor, fighting tears.

“We shall surely miss her because she was very helpful and anyone around highly regarded her. She transcended the animosity between the warring communities and would treat them equally. Jeruto would take care of patients who were in bad shape and within days their wounds would be recovering,” she said.

“We want peace and we are appealing to the government to change tack and address the bandits menace because as a church, we are conducting burials of banditry victims more than of any disease,” she said.

Evangelised to bandits

Ms Neddy Kiptoo, a local leader, had no doubt that she at one point crossed paths with the bandits, serving them or their families, or evangelising to them.

“She might have evangelised to them, treated them in the health facility, or they were her farm workers. She was an all-rounded woman and I fail to understand why the bandits killed her,” said Ms Kiptoo.

On Wednesday, work at the Elgeyo Marakwet county headquarters came to a standstill as both the executive and the assembly closed ranks to demand answers from the government on the deteriorating security in the region.

“Alongside another health worker, our county lost two professionals in just a few hours. We have abandoned irrigation schemes, now there is an imminent threat to close schools and hospitals because of banditry, which the government appears to be unable to tame. We need an end to this menace,” said Elgeyo 
Marakwet Deputy Governor Grace Cheserek.

She said it was no longer about banditry, but territorial expansion and extermination of a community by their neighbours. 

The Elgeyo Marakwet county assembly has presented a petition to the National Assembly, through its Speaker Philemon Sabulei, seeking to have the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) take full charge of a joint operation with the police to end insecurity in the troubled region.

“There is no way KDF can take orders from the police. Until the current security operation command is aligned to have it led by the military, more killings will continue because bandits have overpowered the police,” said Mr Sabulei.

Upscale response

On Tuesday, Governor Wisley Rotich mounted fresh pressure on the government to upscale its response, with the bandits appearing to be launching attacks despite the ongoing operation.

The governor even threatened that leaders would now be forced to start ‘arming their people’ starting Monday if the KDF and police will not have acted by then. “It is enough!” said the governor. 

“We just lost two more people, including our medical laboratory staff to bandits, pushing the numbers in the mortuary to seven people in four days.”

Keiyo South MP Gideon Kimaiyo called on Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki and Inspector General of Police Japhet Koome to immediately resign.

“We have lost two more lives today and we say we are in government. When is enough enough”? he asked. 

“CS for Interior and the IG police should resign immediately,” he charged.

North Rift MPs have tasked the Interior and Defence ministries to now seek parliamentary approval to allow the KDF to take full charge of the ongoing security operation led by police in the banditry-prone region, saying attacks continue despite security presence.

“We want military deployment under Article 241(3) of the Constitution. We cannot deploy KDF to the region only to be told they are under police. This is a very unfortunate statement from the government since the bandits are reigning supreme in the region,” said Marakwet West MP Timothy Toroitich.

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