Commentaries
The Truth About Gucha Killings
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- Published on Sunday, 22 July 2007 23:18
Such folklore, whether true or false, can very often be used by modern authorities to suppress culture as savage, or to take advantage of culture to explain away atrocities not in the least associated with the noble culture of the people. Such is the case with what is going on along the border of Gucha and Trans Mara District.
Official explanation has it that the Kisii and the Maasai are in conflict over grazing lands and cattle rustling. The Maasai are said to have just had a "generation ritual" that requires that young mensteal cattle from their neighbours.
When this explanation fails to carry the day, another one - perhaps more modern-sounding - is resurrected. It is something to the effect that the Maasai who had rented their land to the Kisii for grazing have changed their minds and want the land back. The Kisii have not obliged, so cattle must be raided either way, as the conflict remains unresolved.
Having visited the area and discussed with people from both sides, it turns out that outsiders have fuelled the crisis for reasons that may require more thorough examination. As the history of all so-called ethnic clashes go, they are neither ignited by the ethnic groups concerned, nor can they be brought to an end by the ethnic groups assumed to be in conflict.
Were the Government to be fair, it would make available to the Kenyan people the Akiwumi Report on the "Ethnic Clashes". With the absence of the report, the same clandestine armed groups, operating at the behest of the State, will continue fanning conflicts to achieve some political goals whenever they deem fit.
What seems to be happening on the Gusii and Maasai border is a classical case of State terror unleashed on the people under the guise of ethnic conflict. What is even more frightening is that there seems to be a deafening silence from the Government, and some sections of the mass media, regarding this horrific tragedy. This is what our visit to the scene of tragedy revealed.
We left Nairobi at four in the morning of Sunday, May 20, headed for Kisii. We arrived in Kisii at around nine in the morning and proceeded to have briefings with our contacts on the ground. Before midday, we had brought together a team of journalists with whom we had further discussions. The journalists were equally disgusted with the scarce attention that the tragedy had received in the mass media at the national level, albeit they had filed several stories for onward transmission to Nairobi.
At one o'clock, we left Kisii for Tabaka Mission Hospital, an institution well run by the Catholic Church that cares for the ordinary wananchi at reasonable costs. With very few facilities, it covers a wide radius of patients coming from the southern part of Nyanza Province and Trans Mara District.
At the hospital, the nurses were extremely friendly and helpful. They showed us patients admitted with gunshot wounds and who had been operated on. They told us that a man who had been very badly shot had died that morning, and the body was in the mortuary.
Among those with gunshot wounds were Tom Mayore, 17, who was shot in the left leg, John Makomba, 20, shot in both legs, Joash Orwaru, 26, shot in the right arm and Ombaso Migiro, 27, shot in the right arm and the stomach. Migiro died the morning we arrived.
Others were John Omonyi, 36, and Mose Ongoi, 21. Both were shot in both legs and may be maimed for life unless sophisticated medical care is provided. A young schoolboy, Jared Onchangwa, 16, was coming out of school when a bullet hit him in the chest. He survived narrowly but may take a long time recovering in the hospital.
Henry Bonyi, 37, risks losing his left eye as a result of a bullet that was lodged just above the eyebrow. Jared Onyancha, 20, having dropped out of primary school while in Standard 5, had been trying to make ends meet by looking after cattle. He has no father, and his mother can hardly take care of the family without his support. He was shot in both legs while looking after cattle.
Tom Nyaribo, shot in the left arm, needed sophisticated surgery to avoid losing the use of the arm forever. At 21, Tom felt bitter that the police should treat him as a criminal when there was nothing he had done against anybody to warrant such cruel treatment.
Samuel Nyamaiko, 17, was shot in the neck. Moi Omwomba, the youngest at 15, was a pupil at Mosesema Primary School in Standard Seven. With him was 15-year-old Nyangwara Ongori of Eyenga Primary School in Standard Seven as well. Both were shot in the left leg having been caught in a battle they could not understand. There were no cattle rustlers when they were coming out of school, nor were they themselves herding any cattle.
We asked the officials of the hospital to show us the bullets that they had removed from the bodies of the patients. They said the bullets were kept in safe custody by their boss and would be available in the event that any proper inquiry is to be done into the incidents.
From Tabaka, we drove to a private hospital in Nyangusu, on the Trans Mara-Gucha border. Here we found the hospital empty of patients, but the small mortuary was full . Among the dead were Robert Omare, Joseph Murandi, Orare Juma and Samuel Onderi. All four had been shot.
We were told the police shot them near Mosesema Primary School the previous day. The police had arrived in five Land-Rovers and, noticing that five people were driving cattle past the school, opened fire and killed them without any warning whatsoever.
One body was brought out and laid on the table for us to see and to take pictures. I noticed that the stomach had been cut open and the intestines hung out. However, a bullet had entered the back side and come out just below the navel. The cut in the stomach must have come afterwards.
The mortuary superintendent explained that the police and other security agents were operating in collaboration with people from ethnic groups not resident in the area. The goons would come after somebody has been shot and slash the body in various places.
What was even more frightening is that, not far from the mortuary, across the valley on a ridge on the Trans Mara side, lies Kipupu Primary School. On that Saturday, a senior Government official was holding a meeting as the police carried out operations against the harmless people. What, in God's name, does all this mean?
The people in Gucha and Trans Mara districts cannot understand why those meant to provide security are busy killing ordinary citizens. They cannot understand why there is such a conspiracy of silence over the tragedy. What is the life of an ordinary person worth to the Government, they are asking.
It is surprising that so many people can be shot without the Government taking appropriate action. If it is really true that the people of the area have guns and that they are actually killing themselves over some dispute, is it really possible that the Government can fail to trace those with guns and apprehend them?
If the Government cannot do this, then it must have completely fallen apart to the extent that it has surrendered the monopoly of controlling the armed instruments of the State to some other forces. And if that is the case, then we are not all safe wherever we are. What is happening in the Gusii-Trans Mara border can happen to anyone living along many ethnic borders that are found in Kenya.
There is a lesson to be learnt here. Skirmishes and wanton killings that we are seeing in the Gucha-Trans Mara border should be stopped promptly. Left or ignored as if they do not really matter because only a few people have been killed makes for dangerous implications for the idea of security in general.
Whether it is one or two persons or hundreds, it is worrying when those meant to provide security kill. This is why this incident must be spoken about loudly and clearly and brought to a prompt end. Further, the families who have suffered and have lost dear ones through no fault of their own should be properly compensated by the State just like the American government should compensate the victims of the 1998 bomb blast.
