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Residents clash, trade accusations over deaths
Standard
Friday, March 23, 2012

Several houses were burnt and shops looted as chaos erupted in Mandera town following the death of a man and injury of two others.

The man was shot on Tuesday night as he left a mosque in Bulla Boystown and his kinsmen accused another clan of plotting the death.

The two on the other hand were shot in the chest and legs by security officers who used live bullets and lobbed tear gas canisters to contain the rioters.

Tension has been brewing between the two communities over the lynching of a man suspected to have been behind a grenade attack in the town last month.

The Marrehaan have accused the Gurreh over the death of the man.

Philip Ndolo, the North Eastern Province deputy police boss, said police were able to contain the Wednesday morning violence.

Sealed border

Speaking to The Standard, Mr Ndolo said security officers immediately sealed the border by deploying extra security personnel for fear of criminal infiltration from Somalia.

Ndolo said the deceased had earlier recorded a statement with police and they are following crucial leads to nab the culprits.

The adjacent Somalia border town of Bulla Hawa is inhabited predominantly by the Marrehaan who also live in parts of Mandera town.

In another incident, several other people were injured after they were hacked with pangas and scores of houses burnt down after residents of Mandera went on rampage over increased in targeted killing.

Gunmen believed to be from the Somali border town of Belled-Hawo have killed more than five people in the last three months with all those targeted coming from one community.

militia

The trouble followed the killing of a taxi driver in Bulla Central on Tuesday night by suspected Somali militiamen.

The gunmen numbering over seven and heavily armed according to eyewitness shot the taxi driver who was on foot at the time. The deceased is a relative of a chief killed late last year.

Rowdy youth burnt houses and business premises belonging to a different community, accusing them of been behind the killings.

"The youth claimed they were revenging the killing of the taxi man and four others killed in previous incidents," Mandera East DC Benson Leparamorijo told The Standard.

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