Sondu clashes: Shops reopen after days of tension, confrontation among dwellers

Calm is slowly returning to Sondu Market on the Kisumu-Kericho border after two days of confrontation between the communities living there.

On Friday morning, shops and other businesses reopened, including those selling groceries, bananas and vegetables, which are synonymous with Sondu market.

Transport was also flowing smoothly after vehicle owners released their cars and public service vehicles to operate as usual, ferrying passengers towards Kisii, Kisumu and Nyabondo.

Even as calms was restored, police are still alert, patrolling the area just to ensure the chaos does not erupt again.

However, the residents are still a bit tense and alert, even as they return to work.

“People are still alert and you can tell openly that there is some element of suspicion among them. We hope we will continue with the peace,” said Mr Marcel Omondi, a resident of Sondu told the Nation.

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But even as normality returned, some families are still mourning their loved ones who were killed, while others are still in hospital with injuries.

By Friday morning, the clashes between the two communities living in the area had claimed three lives, including a teacher at Agai Secondary School. Eighteen people were injured.

According to St Joseph’s Nyabondo Mission Hospital, five people were nursing gunshot wounds, three hospitalised after incurring cut and stab wounds and seven suffering from arrow wounds by Thursday evening.

The total number of the injured, however, had increased by Friday morning to 18.

The deadly clashes pitting hitherto friendly neighbours entered their second day, with members of the warring communities taking on each other with bows and arrows and an assortment of weapons.

The unrest that started on Wednesday afternoon during the anti-government protests called by Azimio la Umoja-One Kenya coalition quickly escalated to an ethnic confrontation between two groups.

Mr Jeff Obat, a resident, said the area was peaceful during the demonstrations, until police officers interfered.

One side of the residents is blaming senior officers at Sondu Police Station for siding with their attackers and demanded that they be transferred.

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Some of the injured are said to have been shot by police during the protests, while others were rushed to the St Joseph Nyabondo Mission Hospital and Sigowet, with arrows lodged in their bodies, while some suffered cut and stab wounds.

According to sources, one of the deceased persons was stabbed in the neck before being hacked in the head during the confrontation. The other was shot by an arrow and died on the spot.

According to the police, the demonstrators smashed the rear window of a police vehicle at the Nyakwere Trading Centre, but they were dispersed using teargas.

Despite authorities coming in to quell the tension, the police shot and injured six people — Mr Brian Ochieng, Mr Fredrick Ochola, Mr Oliver Agitho, Mr Martin Osino, Mr Steven Omondi, and Mr Philip Juma.

During the chaos, one police officer, Mr Sammy Kwendo of Katito Police Station, was hit by a blunt object on the right collar bone and was rushed to Nyakach sub-county Hospital at Pap Onditi where he was treated and discharged in stable condition.

The situation was tensed within and on the outskirts of Sondu town, where a group of youths armed themselves with bows and arrows.

When the Nation toured the region, the tension was evident as back and forth confrontation between the two groups continued.

The air around the ever busy Sondu Market was flooded with war cries and pleas for help in equal measure. The tensed mood had got Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers fearing for their members after the Agai Secondary School teacher was shot with an arrow.

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“Most teachers living in Sondu and teaching in surrounding schools are fearing for their lives. We demand schools in that area be closed indefinitely until sanity is restored,” said Mr Zablon Awange, the executive secretary, Kuppet Kisumu County.

He urged the interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki to ensure there is peace in Nyakach schools for teachers and students.

But amidst tension between the two communities, politicians have been trading barbs, with the two governors from the region, Prof Anyang’ Nyong’o (Kisumu) and Dr Erick Mutai (Kericho) accusing unknown political leaders of fuelling the conflict.

“I call upon the tribal bigots from Kisumu County hiding under the political demonstrations to demonstrate an iota of leadership and prevail upon their supporters to put an end to violence masked as demonstrations,” said Dr Mutai.

Prof Nyong’o had also hinted at the same, saying some politicians from Kericho were sponsoring the attacks with the help of the police.

Opposition Chief Raila Odinga, Interior Principal Secretary Raymond Omollo and other state agencies, have also raised concern over the matter calling for a stop of the attacks at the border.

Mr Omollo warned that police will not hesitate to take action against anyone perpetrating violence in Sondu town.

The Interior PS said top security officials from Kisumu and Kericho met on Thursday to discuss ways of restoring peace in the border town and made resolutions that will restore calm.

"Any criminal activity must be met with the full force of the law. Whoever is engaging in acts that are not lawful will be arrested and charged. Security apparatus have put in place measures to ensure the clashes do not recur or get out of hand," the PS said.

The National Integration and Cohesion Commission (NCIC) has mapped Sondu as a violence hotspot.

The areas that have been marked as hotspots are Muhoroni in Kisumu (borders Nandi and Kericho counties), Sondu in Kisumu (borders Kisii and Bomet counties), Kapchebwai in Kericho (borders Kisumu county) and Kopere in Kisumu (borders Nandi county).

Violence has erupted in the region during almost every election in the past 30 years, leading to displacements, loss of lives and property.

Political differences, cattle rustling and boundary disputes have been the major cause of conflicts among the residents of the region.

Mr Sam Kona, a commissioner with NCIC called on the residents to enhance peaceful coexistence, reject politicians and their agents out to incite them to violence and ensure that the rule of law prevails.

By Rushdie Oudia, George Odiwuor and Vitalis Kimutai