The Narok County Commissioner (CC), Samuel Kimiti has warned those inciting inter-clan clashes in the troubled Kuraru area in Trans Mara West that they will face the full force of the law.
Speaking in his office on Monday, Kimiti said they were investigating and will arrest anybody found to fuel the clash between two Maasai clans that has seen three people killed in the last one week and scores of others injured.
“Whether you are a politician, a leader or an ordinary mwananchi, we will arrest you and prosecute you,” he said.
He spoke as police arrested over 30 women who were holding a demonstration in Kilgoris town today to protests over the land dispute between the Maasai clans of Siria and Uasin Gishu.
Meanwhile, an uneasy calm has returned to the said Kuraru area in Keynan ward in Trans Mara West after a fresh flare-up erupted between two Maasai clans residing in the area on Wednesday last week leading to the deaths of three people and several others injured.
The members of the two clans are then said to have attacked each other with machetes, bows, arrows and rungus, leaving three people dead many others injured.
Security has been beefed up in the area with a contingent of security personnel drawn from various sectors patrolling the area which is now calm after security personnel moved in to quell the fracas.
The two clans of Uasin Gishu and Siria have had a long standing dispute over land boundary but early last month, the two warrying factions of the Maasai community in Trans Mara West finally agreed to resolve a long standing boundary dispute in the area so as to end the conflict among them.
During a meeting between the two warring Siria and Uasin-Gishu clans midwifed by local leaders and the administration in the Narok County Commoner’s boardroom today, the two parties agreed that proper boundaries be set up to clearly distinguish the land owned by one clan from that owned by another clan to resolve the dispute.
Kimiti said the intermittent flare-up is being incited by some people who are against the agreement but they will ensure the resolutions of the agreement are implemented in full and a clear boundary drawn between the two clans.
The volatile Trans Mara area which has in the past experienced inter-tribal conflict between the Maasai and the Kipsigis communities living in the area is however enjoying some calm for many months now, save for the current dispute between the two Maasai clans. This can be attributed to a disbarment exercise carried out in the area last year where 100 assorted guns were recovered.
The cattle rustling is common in the area and the neigbhouring counties such as Migori and Kisii and is said to contribute to constant flare-ups that has seen several people killed in the area in the past.
Grazing pasture and a 1,000acre 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
