Image: JOSEPH KANGOGO
Image: JOSEPH KANGOGO
Image: JOSEPH KANGOGO
Some Baringo leaders want Pokot elders accused of practising witchcraft arrested during the ongoing security operation against bandits.
Former Bartabwa MCA Reuben Chepsongol said the elders were dangerous as they embolden the bandits with magic to confuse, kill and steal people’s livestock.
“Nothing much shall even be done in the ongoing operation if the government fails to sort out these lethal Pokot elders,” Chepsongol said.
He suggested the elders be mopped up and locked up.
The former MCA addressed mourners on Saturday during the burial of GSU officer John Kisoi who was among eight security officers killed by bandits at Napeitom, Turkana East.
Chepsongol alleged the Pokot magic shields the bandits while conducting raids or while being pursued by security officers.
He cited the record four road accidents within a week involving security officers’ vehicles in Tiaty, where two KDF soldiers were killed and several others injured last Thursday.
“These scenarios are not normal at all and the government needs to look into it keenly while carrying out operation to flush out the bandits,” he said.
Chepsongol said all Pokot leaders, chiefs, the elders and even the clergy embrace witchcraft, “so the government should find a way of catching and locking them up before conducting the operation,” he said.
He was backed by Baringo Senator William Cheptumo, Baringo North MP Joseph Makilap and Woman Representative Florence Jematia who said there could be some truth that Pokot elders used witchcraft for banditry.
Jematia further called upon professionals from Pokot community to come out and help end banditry.
“All Pokots are not bandits but all the bandits I know are Pokots,” she said, adding that they had killed, injured and displaced thousands of people in the neighbouring communities and then occupied their land.
Last week, a retired soldier Moses Kwonyike from Koroto, Baringo North subcounty, urged the state to further embrace the use of traditional methods to counter banditry.
Kwonyike said it is abnormal that a bandit could shoot someone from a kilometer or 500 metres away, “and if you go there trying to sort them out they turn into dark stones and immediately you pass you are hit hard from behind,” Kwonyike said.
He said the soldiers who have just been dispatched to deal with the bandits shall soon document their findings, “and people will read interesting stories”.
But there are no independent confirmations of these claims.
NOT TRUE
Pokot elders deny the witchcraft allegations, saying majority of them are Christian and they do not support backward practices like cattle rustling and banditry, female genital mutilation and early marriages.
“Government and everyone out there should know there are majority good people here in pokot land, only a few people have decided to be criminals to spoil our name,” elder and former councilor Yuda Losutan said on Monday.
He praised the government for initiating the ongoing operation, saying it should be done nonstop until all the notorious bandits are flushed out.
“As elders from the Pokot community, we are peace lovers and we have always thirsted to coexist well with our neighbouring communities but banditry has become a thorn in our flesh,” Losutan said.
Last week while he attended a peace meeting, retired Anglican Church canon Christopher Chochoi said he admired the way other communities like Tugens feared theft.
“In fact, you can go tie your goat in Tugen land overnight and you find it in the same place the next day, simple because they believe and fear thunderstorm. I wish our Pokot people could embrace the same,” Chochoi said.
The pokot elders appealed to the government to consider supplying relief food urgently to feed the hungry population.
“The entire population in Tiaty among them women and children are now facing serious starvation amid the ongoing operation after the government locked all the markets and routes,” Losutan said.
He further called upon humanitarian agencies to intervene .
Edited by Henry Makori