This archive report was first published on 6 July 2020.
Published on July 6, 2020, a day after a security meeting at a Kenya Wildlife Service camp near the disputed Mikululo ranch in Kibwezi West Constituency, two more people were killed in the ongoing inter-communal clashes between two communities at the border between Makueni and Kajiado counties.
Four people have now been killed in the past three days in the disputed Mikululo ranch, which is located in Kibwezi West Constituency. The ranch is situated near Ilukulenyeti in Kajiado East constituency to the west.
According to Florence Nduku, a woman who lost her son and neighbour in the attack, the attackers struck at the middle of the night armed with spears and swords demanding to know why they had occupied the land. “Since February I have been living here in peace. Yesterday around 6 pm is when I arrived home from my daily hustle and we stayed here with my two children together with a neighbour who had visited us,” she said.
She added that they were in fear after another attack happened a night before and that was the reason they had invited their neighbour, a 70-year-old man, to come and keep vigil together. “We retired to bed around midnight. Before we could settle the worst struck. I saw a group of armed men approaching. They accessed the house by destroying the wall. They asked why we had occupied their land,” she added.
Another survivor, Erick Mwendwa, described in pain how he stared at death. “They killed the old man kneeling down outside my house while my brother was killed as he tried to escape,” he said.
Some neighbours accused the police of taking sides, claiming they were woken up by loud noise from the scene and were told to go their own ways by the police. “We tried to intervene but when we met police and tried to show them the direction which they are not aware of they refused. They told us to go our own ways. They came back one hour later when killers had already disappeared,” said Mwangangi Musila.
Despite a security meeting held on July 5, 2020, at a KWS camp near the ranch, killings have continued. The ranch members were granted the 73,000 ha land by a Machakos court on February 22, 2019. The Mikululo Ranching Company Limited was termed as the rightful owners of a parcel of land. Judge A. Ongote ruled that a permanent injunction be issued restraining Kenya Wildlife Service from evicting Mikululo residents from the piece of land.
