• Jessica Leado (23), George Obeille (27), Dan Lentare (17) and Chuchu Mosor (23) were attacked and shot by armed assailants while they were heading home in Songa location near Marsabit town on June 8.
Image: COURTESY
Image: COURTESY
Two university students are among the latest victims of tribal warfare in Marsabit, whose toll this month alone is 15.
Jessica Leado (23) and George Obeille (27) were killed last week alongside Dan Lentare, 17-year-old Form Two student and Chuchu Mosor (23), a motorbike operator.
They were shot dead on June 8 on their way home in Songa location near Marsabit town.
Leado was a third-year Bachelor of Education student at Tangaza University College in Nairobi. The third born in a family of six was shot eight times.
She was the vice chairperson of the Rendile University Students Association.
Obeille was also a B.Ed student majoring in Geography and Mathematics at Kenyatta University in Nairobi. He was a finalist.
A footballer and short-distance athlete in high school, Obeille scored 364 points in Kenya Certificate of Primary Education examination and B plain in Kenya Certificate in Secondary Education examination.
The learners were returning home after online studies in Marsabit town. The assailants ambushed their bodaboda and sprayed them with more than 30 bullets.
Lentare was a high school student in a Meru county.
Mosor was a Form Four leaver and the sole breadwinner in his family after his father died last year.
His younger brother was among the three children gunned down while heading home from a church youth camp in 2015.
Residents told the Star that the killings had been planned, as the targets were only Rendilles.
A day after the killing, police, using sniffer dogs, traced two attackers to a nearby homestead of a former politician.
The killings led to protests along the Marsabit-Isiolo highway in which two women were injured as the police dispersed the protesters.
“We have been waiting for news of the arrest, but nothing is forthcoming. We lost very bright students…you know it's very hard to make it to university from hardship areas,” Karare Ward MCA Leado Stephen told the Star on Sunday. The four victims were from his ward.
Marsabit police commander Steve Oloo could not respond as he was in a meeting.
Area DCI boss Aaron Chabari acknowledged that there had been no arrests, despite residents claiming that the attackers were known.
The killing came days after clashes pitting the Borana and Degodia communities in which seven people died at Barderero, Moyale.
In 2017, before general elections, three children were gunned down while herding cattle in Hulahula
And after the elections, two boys were attacked in the same area. One died.
On Saturday, the community's elected leaders and members of the Rendile Professional Association condemned the killings, saying their people had been targeted by neighbouring communities.
“It is an open secret that the neighbouring communities have schemed to dispose Rendile of their ancestral land because of their vulnerability,” Laisamis MP Musa Arbele said.
He claimed that since 1994, 204 people have been killed.
At the time, governors Mohamud Ali (Marsabit) and his Wajir counterpart Mohamud Abdi flanked by elders from both warring communities held a peaceful meeting at Badarero, Moyale subcounty.
The meeting which brought together more than 10 members of Parliament and 10 MCAs resolved to have elders from communities meet after every six months to look into triggers of violence.
As the meeting progressed, clashes pitting Borana and Gabra communities left four boys dead at a watering point in Saku subcounty.
- mwaniki fm