Kitui people harbour no grudge against Somalis but have a problem with armed camel herders who attack residents without provocation, Senator Enoch Wambua has said.
“I have said this many times before, that the problem we are facing is not a problem with the Somali community. No, the problem we have is camel herders who push their animals into our land and want to graze on our land and farms by force,” the Kitui senator said Wambua on Monday.
He spoke to journalists in Kitui town after attending a closed-door meeting with the Kitui county security committee led by acting county commissioner Ole Kyuta. Machakos Senator Boniface Kabaka was present.
Wambua said the meeting resolved that camels must be pushed back from the Kitui border as a matter of urgency.
“We have said we will engage with the county government of Kitui so that we do a proper cutline along the porous border with Tana River county so that it is clear when you are in Kitui or in the other county,” Wambua said.
The senator said he was angered by sporadic killing of Kitui people along the areas bordering Tana River county by armed camel herders.
Wambua said the meeting sought to interrogate where Kitui county leadership stood in terms of the pushing for safety and security of the county residents.
“We were specific on the security situation in Kasiluni and Mandongoi in Ngomeni ward of Mwingi North subcounty,” said Wambua.
He lamented that over a week ago, camel herders armed with an AK 47 rifles shot dead a man in Kasiluni as he was taking his cattle to a watering point.
The senator said the attacks and cold-blooded killings by camel herders have gone unabated for long and it was time the killers were kept at bay at whatever cost.
“Actually in 2017 when I was elected senator, it would be remembered that the first statement I ever sought on the floor of the House was on the killing of eight people in that area by bandits,” Wambua said.
