Silencing the guns: Kapedo Girls Primary School reopens eight years after deadly bandit attack

Learners, teachers, and workers all fled as they scrambled for safety in different directions, leaving their belongings behind.

When the guns went silent, some learners, and teachers had sustained injuries, with the school cook suffering multiple fractures on his legs, rendering her disabled.

Following the incident, the school – located approximately 500 meters from the insecurity-prone Kapedo shopping center – was abandoned and turned into a bandits' paradise, with learners being relocated to a local church.

The school has since remained abandoned, with vandalized dilapidated structures, rendering it a no-go-zone.

Last Monday (February 3), however, the school compound came alive again as the school community regrouped to start afresh, exactly eight years later.

Dozens of learners, teachers, and parents watched with enthusiasm as their desks, books, and other learning materials were loaded onto a police lorry, that waited outside a lone structure- a church building that has housed nine classes for the last eight years.

Read: Brazen bandit turns local school into home for his two wives after villagers flee: Kindiki

It followed a decision by the new Suguta county administration and school committee to reopen it, following eight months of relative calm.

This is attributed to the security operation launched by the government a year ago.

Some 300 girls were elated as they were relocated to the school, where the local community has spent the recent couple of weeks cleaning and salvaging what remained, voluntarily fixing and repairing what was damaged.

A parent, Agnes Lekutoi, recalled the fateful day that led to the school’s closure.

“The attack is still fresh in my mind. Our children had left home for school that morning and we did not suspect that bandits would stage an attack in the village, as that was the norm in this area,” Ms Lekutoi said.

“In the afternoon, we heard gunshots at the institution located almost a kilometer from the village. But there was nothing we could do to help, as our children were holed up in the compound. Security officers responded and hours later, the gunshots stopped, but with casualties,” she recounted while fighting back tears.

From Kapedo village in the gazetted Suguta Sub County to Lokwar and Nakuse village in Aroo Sub County, border residents have chilling tales of how they have survived bandit attacks over the years.

From the killing of school-going children, teachers, innocent vendors, and passengers to the destruction of homes, farms, schools, and dispensaries as well as sustaining lifetime wounds, residents here have seen it all.

In 2018, three learners and a teacher were killed by bandits while on their way from Marigat.

Read: Inside the life of students in bandit-hit schools of border villages

Esther Mateo, a parent and committee member of Kapedo Primary School, recalled how rampant bandit attacks forced the school’s indefinite closure.

“We later transferred our children to other schools, while other parents relocated to as far as Lokori, Lokichar, and Lodwar. Bandits capitalized on the opportunity to vandalize the school taking away iron sheets, doors, and anything they considered valuable," Ms Mateo said.

According to the school head teacher Newton Kudoo, at the time of closure, the institution had a population of more than 460 girls from the Pokot, Tugen, and Turkana communities from Marigat, Lomelo, Kapedo, Kampi Samaki, Napeitom, Kamuge, Ngilukia, Lokwii and Mogotio areas.

He said more than 20 solar panels, water tanks, beds, doors, windows, iron sheets, and desks were carted away by bandits, while furniture and books were later consumed termites.

“This was a girls’ school that accommodated learners from all neighbouring communities. However, when the flare-ups started, parents withdrew their children, forcing it to shut down to date,” Mr Kudoo said.

Francis Lopalal, a resident, says no one has dared to step into the school compound since the incident. 

He recalled how the learning at the school has been erratic because of insecurity, before the indefinite closure after the 2017 attack.

Before its closure, a chief and a nurse had been killed by bandits in rampant attacks in Kapedo and Lomelo villages.

Read: Inside Kapedo Catholic Church where worshippers are guarded by armed security officers

“The institution had severally been attacked by bandits. It was their escape route and sometimes they shot at learners indiscriminately as they fled after raids,” Mr Kudoo said, noting that the school became a soft target because it was located far away from security camps and the villages.

“There was no perimeter wall at the time and bandits would just attack or pass through after staging raids without much difficulty,” he said.

At Lokwar and Nakuse villages, a resident Mr Hosea Ekitela recalled that bandits in 2014 forcefully evicted more than 1,200 residents, including pupils in nearby Lokwar and Nakuse primary schools.

“Gunshots rent the air as the bandits burnt our manyattas, took away iron sheets, destroyed furniture, looted food stores and forced us to relocate to Kaputir, Kalemngorok, and Lokichar,” Mr Ekitela said.

In January 2024, bandits attacked locals who were returning to their villages injuring three learners in Lokwar village. They also torched the newly constructed JSS classrooms and several houses.

While visiting the two villages on January 10, 2025, East African Community, Arid and Semi-Arid Lands and Regional Development Cabinet Secretary Beatrice Askul said nearly 1,000 pupils were out of school and hundreds of families had been left homeless.

“At Lokwar and Nakuse villages, armed bandits razed down primary schools, vandalized a dispensary, and displaced residents in 2023,” she said, noting that Loyapat, Lorogon, Napeitom, and Kapedo in Turkana County were the other areas where learning has been adversely affected and locals displaced by bandits.

Because of the perennial conflicts, Kapedo, which lies on the border of Turkana and Baringo counties, now hosts a platoon of officers from the General Service Unit (GSU), Rapid Deployment Unit (RDU), Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) camp at Chesitet and a number of police reservists.

Boundary disputes between the Pokot and Turkana communities living in the disputed area and the scramble for the resource-rich area have been cited for bloody conflicts.

The two communities both lay claim to the disputed 18-acre Kapedo land.

Read: Valley where death lurks and armed bandits roam

In a bid to boost security in Suguta Valley, the government named Suguta as a new Sub-County in Kapedo and deployed a Deputy County Commissioner.

The new Deputy County Commissioner, Mr Franklin Ongori, who was deployed last October, toured the deserted institution and promised to oversee its renovation and fast-track its re-opening.

Mr Ongori said he was shocked to learn about the primary school during a familiarization tour, and mobilized locals, to clear it and prepare for reopening.

Mr Ongori said he moved his sub-county office close to the deserted school to assure locals of the safety of their children.
School chairman Patrick Ekitela said they had lost hope of ever having the school reopened due to the insecurity.

“We are happy that the school has been reopened. We grateful to the new administration for spearheading the process,” added Mr Kudoo, the head teacher.

Meanwhile, Mr Ongori assured residents that the security situation has been restored and schools, including Kapedo Mixed Secondary School, Kapedo Girls Primary School, Kapedo Mixed Primary, Junior Lopalal Academy, Lomelo Primary and Silale Primary, that have previously been affected by insecurity, are currently operational.

“Insecurity had affected the enrollment of students and pupils and their overall performance. We assure parents of their children’s security and necessary support from national government,” Mr Ongori said.

To boost retention among learners, the government will be providing free meals to all schools in the new Suguta Sub-County.

Other primary schools that are yet to re-open in the new sub-county include Adoket Adome which has been closed since 1991 and Napeitom, which closed its doors in 2022 due to insecurity. 

[email protected]; [email protected]