Security has been beefed up in Kararu area in Keynan ward in Tran Mara West after a flare-up erupted between two Maasai clans residing in the area on Saturday evening.
Speaking to KNA, the Trans Mara West Deputy County Commissioner (DCC), Mohammed Noor Hassan said a contingent of security personnel drawn from various sectors were patrolling the area which is now calm after security personnel moved in to quell the fracas.
Noor said the flare-up started on Saturday evening when two people belonging to the Uasin Gishu and Siria clans respectively clashed over land.
“Members of the two clans then armed themselves after an alarm was sounded by some people and we hear 15 people were injured in the process but we are yet to confirm this,” he said.
Noor said three chiefs and the two people who sparked off the fracas were arrested for incitement and released on police bond pending investigations.
The volatile Transmara area which has in the past experienced inter-tribal conflict between the Maasai and the Kipsigis communities living in the area, however enjoyed an uneasy calm for many months now which can be attributed to a disbandment exercise carried out in the area last year where 100 assorted guns were recovered.
The cattle rustling is common in the area and the neighbouring counties such as Migori and Kisii and is seen to contribute to constant flare-ups that has seen several people killed in the area in the past.
Grazing pasture and a 1,000 acre Shartuka/Njipship ranches in the area is also partly to blame for perennial ethnic flare-ups on the border of the two sub-counties of Trans Mara East and West as the residents complain about unfair and double allocations of these parcels of land.
By Mabel Keya –Shikuku
