GSU officers. Security agents were Sunday sent to four villages in Turkana South where raiders have held over 900 people captive for close to a week. Photo / Laban Walloga/File
By SAMMY LUTTA
Security agents were Sunday sent to four villages in Turkana South where raiders have held over 900 people captive for close to a week.
Contingents of GSU and regular police arrived in the region with food following reports that hundreds of villagers and a team of security officers were going without food and water following the week’s siege by bandits believed to be fighting to have a boundary in the area reviewed.
The deputy county commissioner for Turkana South, Mr Elijah Kodoh, said that the situation could have been sparked by the recent release of a map that revealed the boundary between West Pokot and Turkana counties. According to the map, River Turkwel has been placed in Turkana County but the raiders want the map to show that the river is in West Pokot.
According to Kainuk Member of the County Assembly, Mr Nicodemus Eguman, the Kerio Valley Development Authority wanted to start a sugarcane plantation along River Turkwel, but one community was opposed to the project which the map shows is supposed to be in Turkana County.
By Sunday, Lorogon, Nakwamoru, Joluk and Kapelbok villages in Turkana South Sub-county were still under siege from the more than 200 heavily armed raiders. The only motorable road to the area was blocked after raiders felled trees across it at various points and dug trenches to make it impassable.
Speaking to the Nation on phone, Lorogon Primary School deputy headteacher Losike Ragai said the siege began when pupils at his school were preparing to break for the December holidays.
He said over 900 people — including 400 children — have been without food since the siege started.
“This is a small hilly area surrounded by forests and the water supply we depended on was cut,” said Mr Ragai.
He said the six teachers at the school had 10 litres of water which they were rationing with each only allowed a glass a day, adding that the pupils were starving because the raiders would not allow them to leave the institution.
The teacher said that early Sunday, there was heavy exchange of fire between the GSU and the bandits.
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