Kapedo is deadly: Journalists recount their seven-day ordeal

Three who were trapped in Kapedo say they are thankful to God they came out alive in their narration of their seven-day ordeal in the valley of death on the border of Baringo and Turkana counties.

NTV’s Peter Warutumo, Cheboit Emmanuel (Citizen TV) and Mike Ekutan(Radio Maisha) arrived in Kabarnet, Baringo on Thursday.

“We haven’t eaten well, slept, taken a bath or changed clothes since we landed in Kapedo last week on Saturday,” Ekutan said.

Besides appearing in dirty clothes, the trio looked tired and hungry, yawning with desert-dry lips.

"We  need urgent psychological counseling  to restore back our mental stability," Ekutan said

The journalists stationed in Lodwar, Turkana county, had accompanied a convoy of three Turkana MPs James Lomenen (Turkana South), Mohamed Ali Lokiru (Turkana East) and John Lodepe (Turkana Central) who visited Kepedo to distribute food to victms of Saturday attack.

“We only survived with the little that locals cooked for their MPs. We lost appetite but ate little pieces to sustain our lives,” Warutumo said.

Thousands of locals in Kapedo are at risk of hunger  because shops are running out of stock and the residents no longer travel along the barricaded Marigat-Chemolingot-Kapedo road.

“If foreigners like us nearly died after spending there only one week, then what of the locals?” Cheboit posed.

He said tension is still high in Kapedo and the place is a no-go zone.

Civilians and two senior police officers, among them the General Service Unit superintendent Emadau Tamkol, have been killed.

The vehicle ferrying Tamakol was ambushed by gunmen and sprayed with bullets at the volatile Kapedo Bridge along the Chesitet- Chemolingot-Marigat road last Sunday.

The journalists said the armed bandits torched over 20 houses and displaced over 200 families who are now living in security camps as internally displaced persons.

“The situation is so bad. We witnessed several attacks we survived by the mercies of God and the security officers,” Cheboit said.

He said every time a police armored personnel carrier returns back to the camp in Kapedo, it is dotted with bullet marks.

“ If the armed security officers are being attacked and killed, then what of the innocent locals who are not armed?” Cheboit posed.

No private vehicles, matatus or boda bodas are operating along the roads.

On Wednesday night, they said, it was a sigh of relief when they received a phone call from Baringo Police Commander Robinson Ndiwa who asked them to assembly at Kapedo GSU camp where they boarded a police APC that ferried them to Marigat town.

“On the way, the officers who escorted us had to make five stopovers to make random shoot out to clear the way in case of a planned ambush by the bandits” Ekutan said.