16/03/2022
WHAT I SAW WHEN I VISITED KAPTURO, MOCHONGOI AND TOT: A STORY OF FIRE, GRAVES AND TERROR
By Leonard Kulei
On Friday, I yet again attended the burial of Joseph Rotumoi, a victim of gun-toting bandits at Kapturo in Baringo North Constituency. Sadly, even at death, his kin could not be allowed to bury him as marauding bandits threatened to wipe out every life in the village.
The deceased, a staunch Christian and a father of 7 was on his way to the river at dawn to draw water. He was in the company of two women; his wife Esther and a neighbour.
A few minutes after stepping out of their home, a bullet was fired and as each scampered for dear life, Mzee, as narrated by his wife took a footpath. Croaching on one knee and aiming at him at military precision, one bandit fell him in a hailstorm of bullets. A bandit blew a whistle to symbolize a successful mission and they all left. The presence of an AP Camp some few metres away from the spot of ex*****on could not deter the bandits.
Just like that, a family lost a father, bread winner and pillar. Rotumoi joins the growing list of people killed by Pokot warriors whose actions now qualify to be acts of terrorism.
At Ashakanin area near the burial site, the police vehicle which I had boarded stopped and the driver, adorning dark glasses, body armour, a rifle and a Rocket Propelled Gr***de (RPG) alighted. Before I could notice, all the passengers had jumped out and took positions. I thought the enemy had been spotted but I later learnt that it was war strategy at play.
“We are now officially entering the Red Zone.” He informs his colleagues. Guns corked and the journey proceeds.
Along the treacherous road, we meet fleeing families. Women carrying children in their shoulders with mountains of luggage in their backs.
They are terrified and traumatized. “They killed my husband last month. I don’t know where I am going to. I will stop where I will find peace,” one of them tells me as she begs for a bottle of water. It is a mass exodus from the village where Rotumoi was shot dead. The scenes are akin to those from the 1994 Rwandan Genocide where families crossed to DRC and Burundi in droves.
At the venue of the funeral, I met terrified men. There was no woman in sight. They are people counting days to the day they will be wiped out. All their livestock, their only source of livelihoods have been stolen by the bandits in weeks of fire and death.
I could see men standing in groups. They conversed in hushed tones. There were some who chose to dig their fingers into their cheeks and let their thoughts wander. They don’t know where to move to. Their hope is on the arrows and bows they clutched in their feeble hands.
Kapturo Primary School, their only school has been closed down. The nearby Dispensary is home to Bats and Lizards. I saw a big Lizard sleeping atop a stockpile of medical supplies. I suspected it was a female one hatching its eggs.
More than 20 schools have been closed along the border-Kobot, Chepkesin,Kamwetio,Tuluk are among those whose doors have been permanently closed.
Interestingly, the bandits went further to vandalize and torch Kamwetio Primary school. This, in addition to the attack of a School bus recently along Arror-Tot road in Elgeyo Marakwet County is a clear evidence that the Tiaty terror gang has a mission to forcefully evict residents from their land.
Those who spoke at the funeral were brief. They wanted a solution to the continuous murder of the Tugen people by Pokot bandits who operated like a militia.
I counted the graves of those murdered previously. I found ten in Kapturo Village alone before I was engulfed with grief. I saw a limping man. I was told he is among 15 survivors of bullets.
Some graves were fresh. Grass had hardly grown on them, their presence, a stark reminder of the painful deaths of their permanent tenants.
When I returned from counting the graves, the Police officers had taken cover, a report had been conveyed of an impending attack in the village.We hurriedly buried the deceased and jumped into our car. At least 40 fully armed officers from Kesumet ASTU Camp had attended the funeral to provide security.
“This is so sad. Imagine you can’t even burry your own in your own land. These bandits are keen on territorial expansion. This is no longer a culture nor cattle-rustling. It is war possibly supported by all Pokot leaders.” One elder said as he cursed the Pokot bandits.
At Ngaratuko in Saimo Soi Ward of Baringo North, I am greeted with a fresh grave. Withering flowers dot the soil and a cross immersed into it is fallen, perhaps due to the abandonment by its kin. I am told the grave belongs to one Jacob Kimosop, a man nicknamed Toi Toi.
Toi Toi was shot death few weeks ago and his 450 goats were driven by gun-wielding bandits. I picked a 65-year old man as my reference and we walked together deep into the village.
From Ngaratuko, Chepkewel,Sibilo, Yatya and Loruk, we counted 50 graves-all murdered in cold blood.
At Yatya, there is a road connecting Loruk-Chemolingo road but has been abandoned. I am told it is now a bandit paradise. The last time a boda boda motorists used it, he was ambushed and shot at close range. This comes two weeks after another victim was shot by a suspected Pokot sniper from about 300 Metres away as he crossed Yayta Primary school field.
I found people left at the mercy of deadly Pokot militia whose aim, according to the residents is murder and territorial war. The attacks have greatly morphed from a cultural expedition to a stinging bloodshed, eviction of population and occupancy.
At Loruk, I am informed of the bodies of seven innocent people killed in a village called Sinoni in Mochongoi which were to be collected at Nyahururu Hospital for burial the following day.
Outside the Hospital Morgue, I am greeted with seven coffins each carrying the remains of people who were not killed by Covid-19 nor traffic accident. Their only mistake is being a neigbour to the Pokot people.
Leaders who attended the requiem mass were lost for words. They wondered why even after all these killings, the government has never spoken. Inetrior CS Fred Matangi has gone silent.
I was shown ghost villages of Kasiela, Chebinyiny, Lamaiwe and Arabal. What used to be homes to thousands of families have been abandoned. I could see iron-sheet roofed houses overgrown with vegetation, a testimony of the many years of abandonment.
At Tot village in Elgeyo Marakwet County, frightened families have sought refuge in caves in the escarpments. I saw helpless men patrolling along the Tot-Sambalat road with arrows. Some were too emotional to answer to my questions.
I was shown a health facility at Tot where hundreds of women and children were massacred in 1998 by bandits. The children were attending a vaccination drive at the facility before they were surrounded and murdered. No one remembers their names apart from their families.
Bandits wipe out entire village
Some who ran for dear lives were followed to the caves and shot at close range. Their cries and pleas, they recalled emboldened the Pokot bandits to fire more. This is near Murkutwo, a village where all its 30 families were killed in 2002 by the same bandits in the dead of night.
As I grabbed a mango to feed on, one of the major cash crops in Kerio Valley, gun shots renders the air and I took off using a motorbike towards Arror Trading Centre. As soon as I alight, my rider informs me that a man had been killed at Sambalat area. This adds to the statistics of hundreds that died before him.
Interior CS Matiangi to classify Tiaty Bandits as outlawed terror gang.
From the three communities I visited, I met people staring at death, hopelessness, pain and a hollow future.
I ask myself what if seven people were today killed at Karen Estate in Nairobi. Will the government just keep silent and things move on as usual?
Last week, when a woman was assaulted by boda boda riders at Forest Road in Nairobi, the President ordered a crackdown and within no time the main suspect was paraded on the pages of mainstream media for all and sundry.
Aren’t the Tugen and Marakwet people of any value to the Kenyan government? Which mistake did they do to warrant such level of abandonment and derelict?
I recall the Mt Elgon land clashes and the Mungiki menace. Didn’t the government react swiftly that today the two are things of the past?
Who protects the Pokot militia? Who benefits from the blood of innocent people felled by the Pokot bandits? Where do the Pokot bandits buy all these guns and ammunition from? Who arms these terrorist??Why is it normal for the government to see a video going viral of a Pokot traditional ceremony with warriors openly dancing with guns and no action is taken?
Who stopped CS Matiangi from classifying the killer terror gang from Tiaty as “outlawed?”
What will happen to the lives of the thousands of young children whose dreams have been cut after their schools were vandalized and families forcefully evicted?
Why are Pokot leaders silent when their people are going on rampage?
In my estimation, the situation calls for national attention and a firm action by the government.
Misadvising the government
I strongly belief that some government officially tasked with advising the State on the correct security position on the ground avail misleading information to suit their personal interests.
Presidnt Uhuru Kenyatta is the only hope for the suffering people of Baringo and Elgeyo Marakwet Counties.
Leonard Kulei is a resident of Baringo North Constituency in Baringo County and a Communications Consultant ([email protected])
