-
The shootout happened along Kindiki Road prompting the gang to retreat.
-
But as the officers were withdrawing from the area they were ambushed by the gunmen who left one member of the National Police Reserve with serious wounds in the left leg.
Multi-agency teams have intensified operations in parts of Baringo targeting gangs that had killed a blind teacher in the area at the weekend.
On Sunday, the teams confronted the gunmen within Ng’aratuko grazing fields prompting a shootout, police said.
The shootout happened along Kindiki Road prompting the gang to retreat.
But as the officers were withdrawing from the area they were ambushed by the gunmen who left one member of the National Police Reserve with serious wounds in the left leg.
Police said he was hit twice by the enemy bullets and was rushed to Marigat Subcounty Hospital and later referred to Kabarnet Referral Hospital for further medical treatment in a stable condition.
The bandits managed to escape through the thickets.
Tension remained high due to Saturday’s two shooting incidences in Namba and Kabirwok areas and the NPR injury incident that happened Sunday, police said.
During the confrontation, a police land cruiser was hit and damaged by the bandits’ bullets.
The windscreen and body were damaged.
The operation mounted on Monday amid calls for more personnel to enable those on the ground.
The bandits’ menace has persisted amid operations.
Police statistics show up to 20 people have been killed in the past two months in the area in separate attacks linked to cattle rustling.
This has forced authorities to re-strategise as residents protest repeated attacks that have disrupted life at large.
The latest incident happened in a village in Baringo on February 10 where a primary school teacher who survived an attack by cattle rustlers at the age of nine, leaving him blind, was shot dead by bandits.
Thomas Kibet, a 55-year-old head teacher at Kagir Primary School in Baringo North, was on a motorcycle with his wife and a child on their way to Kipcherere Secondary School in the same subcounty for a function when they were ambushed by armed bandits in Namba area, police said.
Earlier on, a police officer was shot and killed in a raid on a camp in Chesuman, Elgeyo Marakwet.
The raid happened on February 10 morning at the Chepkum chief’s camp, police said.
Sergeant Anthony Mwangi was shot in the head as he walked to an outside latrine at about 4 am, police said.
His two other colleagues who were at the camp escaped unhurt, police said.
Police said an unknown number of gunmen had raided the camp for a revenge mission. Police said the gang was revenging the killing of a wanted suspected bandit.
More than 20 people have been killed in separate attacks in the region in the past months amid calls to address the menace of banditry.
Last week on Wednesday, gunmen attacked and killed two people including a member of the National Police Reservist in a village in Kaputir, Turkana County.
The incident came hours after another group of gunmen killed a 58-year-old in an attack at a village in Turkana County.
The body of Peter Lokuruka Ekai, 58 was found on the roadside moments after he had been shot in the head on January 31, police said.