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Seven gunned down in Kitui-Tana River border clash
Police yellow tape at a crime scene.
Tension has gripped Tseikuru region in Kitui County after suspected camel herders gunned down seven residents. Tseikuru Sub-county Police Commander Mecha Mogeni confirmed the attack which occurred at Kwa Kamari Township along the Mwingi-Tseikuru road on Saturday evening.
"Attackers stormed Kwa Kamari market and opened fire indiscriminately. They killed three people at the market. They killed others in Mwingi Game Reserve. A man who sustained a gunshot is recuperating at the Tseikuru Sub-county Hospital. We are pursuing crucial leads," he said Sunday.
Those killed are a woman and six men. Witnesses said the assailants indiscriminately also set up shops, a petrol station and motorcycles on fire. When the dust had settled, three people lay in pools of blood. They killed the others as they fled the market.
The motive of the attack was not immediately clear. The police, however, believe it is a retaliatory attack after unknown people killed a herder in the region. The Tseikuru region is the flashpoint of deadly conflicts between farmers and camel herders over water and pasture.
The latest incident has increased to 14 the number of people killed in similar attacks in the region bordering Tana River County since March.
"These are too many deaths in one place. We are going to flush out camel herders who have invaded Mwingi Game Reserve," Kitui County Commissioner Erastus Mbui said.
"We have dispatched a team of regular police and the General Service Unit police officers to pursue the assailants and restore calm," Mr Mbui said.
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