Writes Leo O dera Omolo in Awendo Town.
SCORES of people including a policeman were injured following violence protest by the residents of Awendo Town in Awendo district in Migori County.
The incident occurred on Sunday morning when the residents blocked the main Kisii-Rongo-Awendo-Migori highway with big boulders and set old lit the bon-fire thereby blocking the main rod that passes through Awendo Town.
This followed the Saturday night incident in which a petrol station attendant was captured by unknown armed thugs from his house within the town and forced hi to accompany them to the station. They tied him and stabbed hi on the head and stomach. The night security guards was also murdered.
The attackers were reported to have picked the fuel station attendant Mr Isaac Onyango 24 and forced him to accompany to his workplace so that he could show they where the money was kept for the night. On reaching the station, which is located only a few yards from the District Commissioner’s Office, which is guarded by he Administration {Policemen for twenty four hours, the thugs tied him and stabbed him several times. The night security Stephen Ogutu was also killed in the same manner.
Insecurity in Awendo and its environs has been the subject of bitter complaints by the resident who had petitioned both the D.C’s of Rongo, Migori, Uriri and Awendo requesting the government to improve night patrols by the police.
The residents have also appealed to the Police Commissioner Mathew Iteere to effect the transfer of the Officer In Charge of Awendo Police Station who is said to have overstayed in one work place for close to 12 years and has since became unproductive.
The residents other bone of contention is that some senior and junior police officer have over stayed in the region and have become unproductive and perhaps conduits to criminal activities in the area. Any officer transferred from any of the three stations, is always recycled and posted to the next station within the region, which is making nonsense of it.
Five traders and businessmen have been reported killed within Awendo Town and another businesswoman running an MPESA outlet at the nearby Ranen market was killed two months go when thugs raided her residence and shot her four times in the presence ofher small and school going children.
Her husband was also attacked, but he fainted death and was presumed dead and left.He was later hospitalised. The businesswoman had been attacked previously and robbed of unspecified amount of money. So the thugs suspected her to have known them and they came back and finished her out and killed her while her five small children watched helplessly.
A trader dealing in women and men’s hand-bags at Awendo market was ambushed in his residents and shot three times. Two people suspected to by Motorbike thieves were also set alight and burnt to ashes by the mob of people within Awendo Town.
Local leaders have voiced their concern at the rapidly deteriorating security situation at Awendo Town. The residents said they have lost confidence in the OCS and his team of policemen and wanted the station completely overhauled and new men and women posted there.
The chairman of Awendo Town Council Councilor Johnson Omolo Owiro and his Deputy Coun Martin Ondong’ has appealed to the Provincial Administration and the police authorities to intervene on matters of insecurity in Awendo town, saying that traders and businessmen in the small farming town were worried about their safety.
On Sunday, the enraged residents came out in full force and staged violence protest against what they termed as” serious collapse in security system and laxity on the part of the police officers serving at Awendo Police Station.
Despite of five people having been killed within the last two months, no arrest has been made and investigation is said to have been carried out in haphazard manner.
The residents say there several police officers who have worked in the region for close to 15 and have since became laxto performing their duties as required of them. Some of those who have been transferred have found their way back to thee same station through unclear reasons.
Some suspect with serious allegations have found their freedom through backdoor negotiations and the situation is so pathetic that it now call for the entire Awendo Police Station to be overhauled and new staff posted in.
Chiefs and their assistants in the outlaying locations and division have also complained that each time they arrested some suspect with serious criminal offences, the culprits easily find their way out of Awendo Police Station before being arraigned in court to answer criminal .
On District Commissioner in the neighboring district confirmed that his chiefs and their assistant have complained to him about the undoing work at Awendo Police Station have found their freedom without charges preferred to them. This laxity on the part of police has placed the region as one of the area prone to crime.
Ends