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Anarchy Reigns As Loved Ones Weep in Kisii Lynching Fields
- Details
- Published on Monday, 16 July 2007 22:37
Mr Omoke was killed in what is believed to be a revenge attack, linked to the killing of two chiefs in Bonchari constituency three years ago.He was arrested alongside seven others, but after a year in remand, a court set them free for lack of evidence. Since then he had not stepped in his rural home in Nyamokenye; but his neighbours went ahead and destroyed his property.
Rented house
On Sunday, he was flushed out of his rented house in Jogoo estate and hacked several times by a group of about 100.
His relatives believe he had nothing to do with crime. Yesterday, his widow, Ms Anastansia Kemuma, told the Nation that he was killed because of politics.
"They feared he would contest the Nyamokenye civic seat again, but he had told me he was not going to contest. If this information had reached them, he would be alive," she said.
A man suspected to be Mr Omoke's accomplice also died at Kiabiraa in Nyamira, a few kilometres from Kisii Town. Mr Hassan Gesora's body was found dangling from a tree outside his Ekenyoru village home.
The same day, a taxi driver, only identified as Mokono, was bludgeoned to death at Kiomakondo village. He was accused of being an accomplice of gangsters.
On Monday night, a man and a woman were killed on suspicion they practised witchcraft in Keumbu Division of Nyaribari Chache constituency. Two men on a rescue mission were also killed by the mob, which burnt down 10 houses and destroyed property.
Numbering 1,000
The more than 1,000 people raided Keoke village to flush out witches they accused of abducting a 30-year-old man and a pupil. They hacked to death Ms Teresia Osoro, 45, and Mr Francis Mosomi Nyakundi, 46, and set their bodies ablaze.
A sister-in-law of Mr Nyakundi, Mrs Hellen Mogaka, said: "They said his name was on the list of suspected wizards and witches who abducted two people last week. They set the houses ablaze before going to the market, where they found him."
Teresia's husband, Mr Osoro Ondigo, said amid sobs: "I arrived from a journey and found my house burning. I ran to the police at Birongo, not knowing that my wife had been lynched. I lost everything in the grass-thatched house."
Sixteen-year-old Form Three student Victor Ndege, who tried to intervene, was also killed. His colleague Onsembe Nyamari, who was injured during the attack, later died at Kisii District General Hospital.
At Nyangena, near Kisii Town, two members of a vigilante group - Juma Kenyanya Makori and Mose Toto Nyang'au - were confronted by robbers who hacked them to death.
A survivor, Mr Evans Moseti, was admitted to the general hospital. Talking from his hospital bed, Mr Moseti said the gang accused the vigilantes of killing their colleagues and descended on them with pangas (machetes) and gun butts. He crawled to the gate of a nearby hospital and was later transferred.
In Suneka, Mr Denis Okioga alias Morogi, a suspected gangster, was killed on the spot by villagers. He was among those linked to the death of the two chiefs. He resurfaced recently after going underground.
Yet another man was beheaded in Bokeire village, Suneka Division, after he allegedly injured his brother in a land row.
And four people, among them a police officer, are admitted to hospital. A driver, Mr Oscar Gesura, 35, and his passenger, Mr Joseph Ondieki, 22, were shot by the gangsters who killed the two members of a vigilante group. A Flying Squad officer was shot in the left arm when pursuing the gangsters.
Kisii district commissioner Abdilahi Leloon asked for calm, saying the security team was addressing the issue.
"We're doing everything to address the lynching," he told the Nation. On Monday, June 12, two Good Samaritans responding to an alarm were shot dead by gangsters in Matongo village of Suneka. The robbery victim is admitted to hospital. Two Coca Cola employees were also attacked by the same gang and admitted to hospital.
Police said the gangsters had raided the home of Mr Wilfred Mosioma Nyaosi and robbed him of household items before shooting and cutting him with a panga.
Villagers responded, but Mr Charles Onywoki Babu and Mr Albert Rero were both shot in the head and died.
On the same day, two policemen attached to Kiong'anyo police post escaped lynching. One was rescued by security guards at Egerton University's Kisii campus. They were accused of extorting money from chang'aa patrons and distillers.
On June 9, a suspected gangster was killed by a mob, and a home-made gun with four bullets recovered from him in Metembe village of Marani Division.On May 28, villagers lynched a man and left his brother and wife seriously injured in Nyaribari Chache constituency.
Mr Jared Seme, 30, was killed on Thursday, May 4.And Mr Taabu Kerongo, 30, Mr Robert Nyaiyo Ombachi and Mr Fred Ogeto Wako were killed in Mr Ombachi's house at Bomatara village on suspicion of being robbers.
Disclosed names
On Tuesday May 2, two suspected gangsters were lynched in Nyakoe market. Mr Joseph Boi Onono, 30, was killed after he reportedly confessed. He disclosed the names of his accomplices, one of whom was lured through his mobile phone by the mob and killed.
Mrs Agnes Orori, whose four sons were killed by police and a mob, was also killed on April 23. A mob estimated to number 100 stormed her home in Nyamage Village killed her, and seriously injured her husband, Mr Siro Orori.
Kitutu Masaba MP Mwancha Okioma, Kisii mayor Stephen Omurwa and Kisii priest Jeremiah Nyakundi gave varying views on the lynching."We cannot eliminate evil-doers through the commission of evil," Fr Nyakundi told journalists in his office.
And Mr Omurwa feared that the tendency was likely to claim innocent lives.But the Ford People MP said the Kisii residents had felt helpless in the hands of the gangsters, and had been forced to defend themselves.
