Houses torched in clan flareups in Transmara West

A number of houses were torched at Ol Donya in Transmara West, Narok county,  on Tuesday in a new bout of violence between youths from the Isiria and Ilwuasingishu clans.

Ten houses were razed on the side of Ilwuasingishu's Enkoipelekeny villages.

A similar number of houses, mainly grass-thatched, was destroyed on Saturday night sending dozens of women and children into the cold.

Sub-county deputy commissioner Hassan Nur says the two clans have over the years sporadically clashed over a boundary.

The deadly conflict has dragged on for more than four decades.

Some politicians say the war has financiers owing to how fast it was mutating from small-time squabbles into full-fledged gun battles.

Keiyan MCA Mark Mukutut, who assessed the destruction, urged action to stem further fighting.

Former councillor Mark ole Maito separately told journalists there could be more than meets the eye in the conflict.

Efforts to broker a ceasefire between the two sides failed over the years, he said, adding that powerful people could have an interest in fueling the conflict.

Some residents, however, want Governor Samuel Tunai to rein in his Isiria clan members and stop them from raiding and burning their rivals' houses.

For decades, the Isiria clan has been claiming some of their land along the boundary was wrongly adjudicated to the Ilwuasingishu side by government surveyors in the mid-1970s.

They want new demarcation that allocates the land to them.

On Thursday, villages at Ndonya were largely deserted when journalists toured the area. Residents fled in different directions.

A few who remained, mainly women, narrated how marauding youths armed with guns went from house to house, ransacking them and setting them ablaze.

They watched their household items carted away at night by armed youth from Isiria at Enkoipelekeny village alone. Six houses were burnt and food stores destroyed.

Some children fled at night and were still being sought.

The women said they were dragged from their houses at night, along with their children. Some spoke of attempted rape.

"At about 9pm they ordered me to watch our houses going up in flames," Mercy Maito said.

She said youths attempted to rape her daughter, dragging her into a thicket but the screams of women saved her and the attackers left.

"I can't imagine what could have become of my daughter had they gotten their way," she said.

Some of her nine children had not returned hours after the morans left. The village was fearful - frantic searches were unsuccessful.

"Right now I don't know if they were abducted or they are still hiding somewhere in some bush," she told the Star.

Esther Ntoiyana, 45, a widow, watched three of her houses torched. Nothing was salvaged.

Anything left by the fire was vandalised, she said. All she could do was pick her sleeping children and carry them out before the houses were was torched.

"It happened so fast," she said. "It was scary, I was ordered to step back and stop crying or be thrown into my burning houses," Ntoiyan told the Star.

She too said she couldn't find her children. They vanished into the bush when the village was attacked.

She feared they could have been swept away by the swollen river nearby.

The arson attacks, elders said, have intensified since school and colleges closed over Covid-19 fears. The students should be monitored, they said. 

One student has been shot dead.

Another one is recovering after police shot him in the heat of the battle. He was rushed to Tenwek Mission Hospital where he was treated and discharged.

Seven people from the Isiria clan are nursing bullet wounds from that one raid alone.

At least two suspects were rounded up over the weekend following the renewed attacks and have been charged with arson and malicious damage to property.

 Deputy county commissioner Nur said more suspects are being sought. GSU officers were conducting surveillance even as youth fought in the valleys.

Political leaders from Ilwuasingishuside led by Keiyian Ward Rep Mutukut say the government is not doing enough to stop the bloodletting.

"It's scary that skirmishes are becoming gun conflicts. At our level, we have tried to preach peace, but we suspect some people are financing this. That's why we want the government to end this violence," Mutukut said.

The government looks bad because it hasn't solved a clan conflict for 40 years, he said.

"The government can stem further inter-clan conflicts but lacks the will," the MCA said.

Speaking in his office, Nur said the government has already constructed a murram road along the contested ridges to try to end the clan wars.

He said they are already investigating if any political figures are financing the youths.

"We will catch up with the attackers soon. We don't want any element to make a mockery of the gains we have made in cementing peace and normalcy," he told the Star.

But residents say the torching of houses may herald a new wave of battles.

(Edited by V. Graham)