Writes Leo Odera Omolo In Rongo Town.
RESIDENTS of Rongo and Awendo districts have called upon the government as a matter of uttermost urgency to institute a commission of inquiry to publicly inquire and establish the root cause of the last Saturday mayhem in the area which claimed the lives of several people and left more injured.
They appealed to the government to ensure that police officers serving in the region were neutral and not politically biased hen it one to handling volatile situation like the one which occurred at Kitere in North Kanyajuok sub-Location,Kamagambo South, Rongo district in Migori County.
They blamed the police for having helped the owners of the motor vehicles used by the attackers pull them out of the scene of the crime, before proper investigations were launched to established who had hired the vehicles which ferried the raiders to the scene of the crime.
The purpose of pulling the disabled vehicle out of the scene of the crime with the help and assistance of the police, they claimed was meant to conceal the crime.
Late in the afternoon of last Saturday a group of ODM leaders an members had converged into Kitere Center, a small shopping center located close to the Moi University Rongo Campus to deliberate and strategize how they would approach the campaigns for the area’s ODM sub-branch election scheduled for next month, and also to open and paint the party office with its colors.
The ODM elections which were held in the same sub-location two weeks ago were among those nullified by the party’s headquarter and a fresh repeat of the elections called for January 10, 2012.
As the group sat down in serious discussions and having refreshments of soft drinks, six vehicles comprising of two Nissan Matatus, two salon cars and two pick-up vans full of occupants pulled up at the venue of the meeting. At first the conveners of the meeting thought they were ODM members who had come to join them in the meeting.
But this was not the case. All of a sudden, the passengers merged out of these vehicles brandishing pangas, rungus, sticks and other crud weapon and ordered those conducting the meting to disperse at once or l they be dispersed forcefully. And the hell broke out as those in the meeting resisted and refused to obey the dispersing order arguing that the men were not policemen and as such were not mandate to disperse anybody.
Those at the meeting grabbed soda bottles and used them to defend themselves. They hit the attackers with the bottles. Some of the attackers hit the ground dropping their machetes {pangas} which their opponents picked up and used in hacking some of the to death. Three of the attackers were killed on the spot.
Outnumbers as the villagers joined in the fray some of the attackers took their heels and fled into the nearby sugar plantations, but were hotly pursued resulting in father deaths and injuries.
The people at the meeting raised the alarm and the villagers came to their rescue armed with all sorts of crude weapons and the mayhem broke loose. Sensing the dangers the attackers fled in all directions by foot leaving their vehicles behind. Chairs tables and public address system were destroyed.
It has been established that some of the youths ferried in the vehicles were hired from outside Rongo district. One of the victims who died in the blood birth was an ODM youth called Onjiko Asianje came all along from Gem Asumbi in Rangwe constituency a distance of about 20 kilometers away from the scene of the crime.
Tension remain high in the area with increased police presence patrolling areas around Kitere and its environs and also along the Rongo-Awendo Migori Highway even by Monday afternoon. Score of ODM leaders and supporters in Kitere area who became the instant suspects were rounded up and taken into police custody for questioning.
One of the leading contenders for the Rongo Parliamentary seat in the 2012 general elections Joseph Ong’ondo Ng’ani called upon the government and local politicians. He also accused the police in the area as being biased and siding with unnamed politician who is suspected to be responsible for the numerous acts of violence.
Ng’ani said the police should preformed their duties without bias or siding with one side of the warring groups as it has been established in the case of the last Saturday incident whereby the police arrested only local leaders they found at the scene, but did not bothered to investigate and trace the root cause of the violence.
Rongo is an area which is prone to political violence. In 2007 several people lost their lives during the hotly contested election campaign which pitted the immediate former MP for the area George Ochillo Ayacko and the incumbent Dalmas Otieno who is the Minister for Public Service.
The residents have appealed to the ODM leader the Prime Minister Raila Odinga to take a tough stance and ensure that any politician whether a cabinet Minister or not who is guilty of fuelling political violence be expelled and barred from contesting any public elective office during the forthcoming general elections.
The latest massacre of six people in Rongo with close to ten other sustaining serious wounds came about as the result of the much flawed ODM grass root elections in the area, which was evidently manipulated by the sitting MPs. Several people who are perceived to be eyeing for various elective positions in the impending general elections were deliberately locked out of the ODM elections. Others were branded traitors or being moles of PNU and G& alliance without an iota proof laid bearer against them.
Other stakeholders have appealed to the area MP Dalmas Otieno to come out clean and exonerate himself from the chaos being witnessed in Rongo. A couple of months ago ODM officials who had converged at a venue in Rongo town were violently dispersed by youths suspected to be the supports of Dalmas Otieno. One of them was beaten savagely and had to be hospitalized in a Kisii hospital for a couple of days. The beating took place in Rongo town in full view of the forces of law reinforcement, but the policemen did not take any actions.
The two Rongo political giants and arch-rivals Dalmas Otieno and his nemeses George Ochillo-Ayacko could not be reached for their immediate comments.
Ends