Kapedo survivors tell of ordeal

“It was God who saved us.”

That is how a wounded constable, Eric Mugendi of the Administration Police (AP), described his ordeal following a bandit attack at Kapedo area in Turkana where 21 policemen were killed.

He spoke at the Rift Valley Provincial General Hospital in Nakuru on Sunday moments before two of the APs who were admitted at the referral hospital were taken to Defence Forces Memorial Hospital in Nairobi for specialized treatment.

“I have been an AP officer for the last one year and half but I have never encountered such a bloody experience in my life as a soldier. Ilikuwa mbaya. (It was terrible). I don’t know how I survived the bullets that rained on our lorry,” said Mr Mugendi moments before he was transferred.

Narrating his ordeal, Mr Mugendi who was with his injured colleague Livingstone Karuga said they were ambushed by heavily armed bandits on Friday at around 3pm at Kapedo.

“We were escorting a vehicle to Kapedo when we were ambushed by bandits who were hiding in the bush,” recalled Mr Mugendi.

Mr Mugendi, whose first posting as an AP was in West Pokot, said their lorry was moving slowly when it was abruptly sprayed with bullets.

“They started firing at our lorry and when we jumped for cover they surrounded the vehicle and rained our lorry with bullets killing most of our colleagues,” said Mr Mugend who suffered a broken left hand which was heavily bandaged.

Mr Karuga, 30, was unable to sit or stand as a bullet went through one of his legs.

Another officer, Francis Mathai, was seriously wounded and had a bullet lodged in his chest.

MULTIPLE INJURIES

When the Nation visited the hospital on Sunday at around 2.30pm he was still in the theatre where doctors were trying to remove the bullet.

“He was taken to the theatre at 10.30am in the morning as he had multiple gunshot injuries including a bullet lodged in his chest. He also had fractured legs and hands,” said Florence Nangoya a Nursing Officer at the hospital.

Relatives of Mr Mathai who travelled from their home area in Ngorika in Nyandarua County led by his wife Martha Waitherero, his father Simon Matahi Munyoro and his mother Rachel Njeri Mathai milled around the hospital discussing the attack in low tones.

“I last talked with my husband on Friday but we could not communicate well due to poor network connection,” said a visibly shaken Ms Waitherero who is a mother of a two year old baby.

She said that she received a call from an unknown person who informed her that they were with her husband and were heading from Turkana to Nakuru. However, the caller didn’t say why they were coming to Nakuru.

She said her husband was posted to West Pokot but was reinforcing the security team fighting bandits along the border of Turkana and West Pokot.

Mrs Mathai, the mother of the wounded officer, said that she received a call from her daughter-in-law that her son was being taken to hospital in Nakuru.

“I found my son in bed today in the morning and he told me he had been hit by a bullet on the chest and had a broken legs and hands,” said a tearful Mrs Mathai.