Writes LeoOdera Omolo In Awendo Town.
Residents the agriculturally rich Uriri district in Southern Nyanza region have appealed to the government to stamp out thuggery and lawlessness in and around Rapogi Trading Centre.
The residents also wants the government to beef up security operations in the area so as to flash out all dangerous criminal elements, who in the recent past have been terrorizing the resident of this small and busy trading center,
But the area D.C. George Kiplagat countered these claims by blaming the resident for not co-operating with the security agents in the area. He asked the resident to pass the names of the characters they suspected to be involved in criminal activities in the area in confidence to the police and administrative official for action.
Farmers, particularly tobacco and sugar cane growers have been subjected to nightly attacks by criminal gangs and armed thugs who robbed them their hard earned money by force of arms. Traders and petty kiosk traders have also been experiencing similar problem with their shops being broken into on nightly basis.
Last Monday at about 8.PM. a retired secondary school teacher whose home is located only a kilometer from the shopping center was savagely attacked by unknown persons who hit him on the head from behind as he walked home. He became unconscious and was later discovered lying on a pool of blood by the roadside.
Mr Martin Osumba Kotiya was later rushed to Ombo Hospital in Migori Town about 30 kilometers away where he was admitted and treated and later discharged after a couple of days . The next day almost at the same spot, Mr Evans Onyango received a fatal panga would while he was walking home at about 7,.30.pm. Onyango was rushed to Ojele Hospital in Migori town where he is still receiving treatment for the wounds he sustained in the attack.
The D.C. Kiplagat has confirmed that a suspect is being held in connection to Mr Oyangoi’s attack, and the police were still looking for his accomplices.
The dangerous spot, which as since became the hideout of these criminal gangs is some sugar cane farms at the junction of Uriri-Rapogi and RapogiAwendoro9ad hardly 200 yards from Rapogi Center.
A couple of weeks ago unknown thugs using a motor vehicle raided the unguarded home of Mr Zachary Okoth Obado, the chairman of the Kenya Sugar Board {KSB] and made away with nearly all domestic households and furniture. This home is located about two kilometers west of Rapogi Center. So far no arrest has been made nor the recovery of the stolen property.
A cattle-dealer Mr Omeso, had his house broken by thugs using heavy rocks. The gangsters inflicted bodily injuries on him using a panga and robbed him of Kshs 23,000 and later visited a neighbor Mr Aluwala who is primary school teacher and after breaking it in the same fashion but found the that the teacher had no money, but they helped themselves on musical instruments and fled into the bush. of his immediate teacher.
Residents have attributed the alarming waves of crimes in the area to excessive brewing and consumption of the illicit drinks “Chang’aa” in the villages surrounding Rapogi Market. The brewers are said to be working in collaboration with some unpatriotic Administration Policemen who protect them from arrest at a weekly fees.
The residents have also appealed to the government to investigate those who masterminded the clashes between the ODM youth supporting two different factions in Uriri district branch, which resulted in the killing last week of an aide to the areas MP Cyprian Ojwang” Omolo.
The deceased Mr Emmanuel Odhiambo Oguta had led a group of political goons reportedly hired from the nearby Awendo Town on a mission to disrupt the licensed Yes campaign rally organized by local political rivals of the MP.
The resident also urged the government to investigate and trace the person who hired and paid for the four vehicles which ferried the goons from Rapogi to Sibuoche where the mayhem occurred.
Them goons according to locals had bought pangas andrungus for the purpose of attacking their targets and beating the up, when the plan awfully went wrong and the group was overpowered by their opponents.
Ends
leooderaomolo@yahoo.com