Reports Ndira-Uradi In Rongo Town.

Residents of Rongo district have sent a passionate appeal to the two principals in the coalition government urging the to effect the immediate suspension of the Minister for Public Service Dalmas Otieno in order to facilitate thorough investigations over last weekend politically related violence deaths of five people.

The residents said they were unhappy with the directions the ongoing investigations over latest political violence was taking The incident resulted in the death of five hired goons at Kitere Village in Kamagambo South location, Rongo within Migori County.

So far the Minister has yet to issue any comment either absolving himself from the heinous crime committed by political goons, suspected to have been hired by closely connected to him, nor has he come out and condemned he acts of political thuggery within his backyard.

Investigators have been busy picking he wrong people, particularly those perceived to be his potential opponents and parliamentary aspirants for 2012 and taking them into custody. Whereas the culprits, suspected to have hired half a dozen of vehicles which ferried the goons to the venue of the meeting organized by the Minister’s opponent, are walking scot-free.

“This is not the first time goons, suspected to be operating at the instruction of politicians allied to he Minister, unleashed violence to innocent people within Rongo town and its environs. In the last incident the goons had beaten delegates who had gathered in the town to deliberate on ODM elections matters and violently dispersed them.

Some of the delegates ended up being hospitalized, but the attackers, who appeared to be immune and enjoying patronage of someone higher, left the scene of crime unmolested. The police and the Administration police were seen protecting them. Some of the delegates were fished out of Matatus and beaten up senselessly.

Last Sunday, however, those who masterminded a plan and hatched the plot to unleash violence on peaceful people in the name of politics got it wrong in that they dispatched the hired goons to go and attack, beat up and maim innocent people in the remote village of Kitere. The goons and their master would have foreseen the danger of attacking people in their rural homes, and the possibility of the villagers turning heir weapons on them.

“Moreover the raider were hired from distant places like Ndhiwa,Rangwe and Oyugis who had no idea about the land train around the place wee they were assigned to carry out their heinous actions of disrupting an dispersing the so-called unlawful ODM meeting. And even if the meeting organized by a faction opposed to their man was not lawfully convened [MW1] , it could have been wise for the goons and their masters to seek for the police assistance and help. However the same action could have amounted gross violation of the freedom of speech and that of association which are all well entrenched in the new constitutional dispensation.”

Meanwhile the newly elected ODM Migori County branch John M Magaiwa has called for peace and tolerance among the political leaders in the region.” leaders should respect each other and adopt the spirit of tolerating one another irrespective of their diverse opinions. He said the death of the five youths has robbed the ODM of the five votes it needs so dearly.

Magaiwa added that Rongo incident had painted Migori County in wrong footing. We must strive to correct the bad impression created by the last week murder if the youths in Rongo,” he said adding that the cold blooded killings were the act of big shame. Which all the sane leaders in the must be condemned unreservedly and which must not be allowed to reoccur again.

Across sections of Rongo residents interviewed agreed in principles that the area MP Dalmas Otieno and his overzealous supporters should be held responsible for the death of the hired political goons.

They want members of both Provincial Administration and police authorities’ in Rongo behave professionally when discharging their duties and they should not allow themselves to be compromised.

Speculations and rumor making the round within Rongo say some the victims had mobile phones containing vital information and SMS messages and MPESA money transfers sent to them by some known characters.

The residents are up demanding that the police should surrender all the mobile phone handset, found on the bodies of the dead goons, be handed over to the experts for thorough examination and analysis which could reveal the names and numbers of those who had sent them the money and for what purpose.

The Miiste Otieno could not be reached for his immediate comment about the last weekend’s violent orgies, and that the mounting pressure that he should steps aside to enable proper investigations to be carried out within view to establish the truth abut who was responsible for the violence at Kitere which left five people dead scores hospitalized after the brutal machetes and panga attacks

During the constitutional campaign for the constitutional referendum one man, an aide to the Uriri MP Cyprian Ojwang’Omolo, was stoned to death. The group of hired goons were sent to disrupt with intention to dispersing a meeting organized at Sibuoche about 15 kilometers away from Rapogi Trading Center. There, Another similar meeting was going on with several MPs in attendance. There were protests that the rally had been called by the faction of leaders opposed to the area MP. The incident was in similar fashion in the Kitere blood bath incident. The attackers had purchased new pangas and hoes handles, rungus and sticks.

Instead of the police pursuing the attackers, who were outnumbered and overwhelmed by the villagers who sent them to their heels,and detaining the vehicle they had hired for the job, the police tuned on the conveners of the meeting whom they arrested.

The on-going investigations about Kitere’s mayhem ae being conducted in biased and unprofessional manner that it only targeted the victims instead of the aggressors and planners of the bloody incidents. They want those found to be responsible for financing it to be disqualified from contesting any elective point in the 2012 general election on the party’s ticket.

Ends