From: Leo Odera Omolo
Date: Mon, Nov 16, 2009 at 2:25 PM

Writes Leo Odera Omolo

One man was confirmed dead and scores of others injured during a tribal flare up pitting the Maasai from Trans-Mara and the Luos from Rongo district

The fighting broke out last Sunday. It was ignited by land dispute after a Luo man living on the Massai side of the border reportedly died of natural causes. He had legally purchased the from a Maasai and had settled and lived in his homestead for close to 40 years.

But after his death, the Maasai mobilized themselves, invaded his home and gave a firm instruction to his family that he must not be buried on the land, though he was the legally registered owner of the land, which he had purchased close to four decades ago.

The deceased family could yield or succumb to the instruction. They went on and buried the deceased person in the middle of the night. The next morning, the Maasai returned to the home and learnt that the deceased had already been buried the previous night.

The incident occurred at Kitunja village in South Kamagambo Location near Angaga and Ochodororo.

The Provincial Administration in both Rongo and Trans-Mara moved in with speed and quelled what could have been a bloody full scale tribal skirmishes. The Maasai had mobilized themselves, set ablaze several houses and rendered close to 4oo people homeless.

On learning of the attack, the Luos immediately sounded the alarm, and hundreds of youths immediately gathered along the border area for a fight. But more than 4o policemen with reinforcement from Rongo and Trans-Mara managed to stop what could have been a blood birth..

The administration and the elders from both sides quickly agreed that the decease body be exhumed and taken to a morgue in Awendo, while the matter was receiving urgent attention of the government.

On Monday morning the Trans-Mara D.C , Mr Mbogo, and the Rongo District Officer One, visited the troubled border and addressed the two neighboring communities on the need to maintain peace, law and order. But soon after the two senior government officials had left, another man was shot with an arrow and had to be rushed to the Hospital, with the arrow head still lodged in his body.

There emerged conflicting reports about the weapon used in the killing of the dead man. Other reports had it that the victim was shot with gun by a Maasai man, while other reports indicated he died after excessive bleeding from an arrow wound.

By Monday evening, the tension was still high along the borders. Coun Martin Ondong’, of South Sakwa Ward in the Awendo Town Council went round pleading with Luo youths not to revenge, but to give the government a chance to resolve the issue.

Speaking by phone from his Mariwa home, Coun. Ondong’ appealed to the government to come to the assistance of the close to 400 people, mostly Luos living on the Maasai side of the border, whose homes were set ablaze, to return to their farm. He said this skirmishes seemed to have became perennial events. . ”Every December or when the end of the year is approaching, there is always recurrences of this ugly tribal skirmishes and loss of lives in this area.

‘If it is a matter of boundary disputes, let the government resolve it once and for all, so that the neighboring Maasai and Luo communities should live in peace and harmony”.

Some Luos were heard chest-thumping, saying they would block the roads and not allow the sugar cane owned by Maasai farmers in Trans-Mara to be transported by road to the nearby Sonysugar factor, based at Awendo, about 20 kilometers from the Luo-Maasai border.

The factory at Awendo receives a lot of raw cane from Trans-Mara district, which is fetching millions of shilling to the Maasai farmers. But Coun Ondong’ responded to this with severe warning to the youth that this amounted to lawlessness, which is punishable by the laws of the land.. He said nobody is allowed to take the law into his own hand, and all agreed that the two communities must keep peace .

Ends

leooderaomolo@yahoo.com
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Subject: ONE MAN IS KILLED AND SCORES OF OTHERS INJURED IN ARROW ATTACK DURING TRIBAL FLARE UP BETWEEN THE MAASAI AND THE LUO ALONG THE RONGO TRANSMARA BORDERS.