Boy injured as bandits raid Kitui village, torch three homes

MCA for Ngomeni in Mwingi North Constituency, Kitui, Nzungi Ngwele, has appealed to the government to sufficiently protect his Mandongoi residents after bandits shot and injured a boy on Friday.

Ngwele said that it was time security operatives were responsive enough and protected his electorates from incessant attacks by heavily armed bandits who have entered the area disguised as herders.

The MCA who spoke to the Star on Saturday said it was saddening that the armed bandits from North Eastern Region attacked Mandongoi areas on Friday and left a young man with serious bullet injuries.

He said it was depressing that the attack took place less than five kilometres from the Mandongoi GSU camp and security men failed to arrest the situation.

He said earlier in the week, there was intelligence that armed people had infiltrated the area.

“We have a GSU camp here at Mandongoi. I visited the camp when word went round that some armed criminals had been spotted in the neighbourhood. The in-charge promised to forestall any attack but nothing was further from the truth when the chicken came home to roost,” he said on the phone.

Ngwele said it was shocking that on Friday, the bandits raided Kanyunyi village in Mandongoi, torched three homes and shot at the residents leaving a young man with a shattered arm.

The Kyuso sub-county police commander Edwin Otieno within whose jurisdiction the Mandongoi area falls said on Saturday that he had led a contingent of security officers in search of the attackers.

"We are combing the area in search of the attacker and all we are asking is for members of the public to volunteer adequate information that would lead to the arrest of the armed criminals," he said on the phone.

He said the bandits were effectively repulsed by security personnel and they were not a threat because police officers were patrolling the area.

He asked locals not to flee from their fixed abodes.

MCA Ngwele said that following the early evening raid by the armed bandits, tension ran high and about 60 families fled their homes in Kiseuni, Kanyunyi and Kwa Makali villages.

He said the families spent Friday night in dehumanizing conditions in the cold and the bush for fear of being attacked by the armed criminals.

A pastor at the Mandongoi Full Gospel Churches church, Jeremiah Nyayo, said that on Friday night, they gave refuge to 10 families who had fled their homes.

He however said the families spent the night in the cold within his home compound.

He said the young man who was shot and injured was rushed to the Ngomeni Health Centre weak and in great pain since he had lost a lot of blood.