John Ngirachu
12 May 2011
Nairobi — The number of Kenyans killed by Ethiopia militia in a raid last week could rise to at least 69, an assistant minister has said.
Forestry assistant minister Josphat Nanok told the Defence and Foreign Relations Committee Thursday said there are 10 villages occupied by the Merille from Ethiopia in Kenyan territory.
Mr Nanok said the provincial administration and missionaries had buried 29 victims of last week’s massacre in a mass grave and asked the Ethiopian government to account for the missing 40.
“What happened to the missing ones? Can the government of Ethiopia account for the missing ones?” Mr Nanok asked.
“These are Kenyan citizens, and they need security guarantees like any other citizens,” said the assistant minister, who is also the MP for Turkana South.
Mr Nanok, who was part of a delegation headed by Prime Minister Raila Odinga that toured the area Wednesday, said there are eight policemen at a border post there while the Ethiopian government has posted 900 reservists on their side.
There is also a military barracks on the Ethiopian side, said Mr Nanok, and the area is so insecure that the PM’s delegation was advised not to approach a swamp in the area despite having been accompanied by 50 General Service Unit officers.
Turkana County borders Uganda, Southern Sudan and Ethiopia, said Mr Nanok, and only two of the 29 border points are manned on the Kenyan side.
According to Mr Nanok’s account of the genesis of the massacre, two Kenyan Turkanas were killed by members of the Merille tribe as they laid out their fishing nets at the delta of Lake Turkana.
Their counterparts avenged their deaths by killing four members of the Ethiopian Merille community.
Apparently, the two communities had been coexisting peacefully and even trade with each other.
Sorghum, which is grown in the delta of the Omo River, is cheaper on the Ethiopian side, and there were ‘hundreds’ of Turkanas who had gone there to trade.
Mr Nanok said the Merille elders assigned the Kenyans escorts, apparently with the fear that there would be reprisal attacks to avenge the killings of the Ethiopians.
But the Merille tribesmen turned on the Kenyans they were to escort safely back home, said Mr Nanok, and thus his assertion that the Turkana men and women were massacred.
The traditional border between the Turkana and Merille has been the Omo River delta, said Mr Nanok, but this has shifted southward with the gradual recession of the lake’s waters south.
The Kenyan and Ethiopian governments have agreed to have a meeting in Addis Ababa at which the beacons marking the boundaries will be re-established.
Mr Odinga also promised at the end of the tour that the Ethiopian tribesmen on Kenyan soil, said to live in some 10 villages, would be removed.
He also gave guarantees that the regular policemen, General Service Unit and the army located in the area would be moved to Namorupoth, a village nearer the border.
The Defence Committee is also investigating the continued presence of Ugandan security forces on Migingo and Ugingo islands, which are in the Kenyan waters of Lake Victoria.
MPs John Mbadi (Gwassi, ODM) and Omondi Anyanga (Nyatike, ODM) said every boat landing fish off Migingo is charged Sh4,000 per month, and the soldiers also arbitrarily charge Sh400 per day.
Mr Mbadi said the recent takeover of Ugingo, the smaller and lesser known of the islands, is by Ugandan farmers, who have planted crops there and are about to harvest.
The Gwassi MP said that although the Ugandan soldiers have since lowered their flag, they continue to harass fishermen there, and the Kenyan government is yet to send officers there.
“It is also bothering us that there are no Provincial Administration officials or police officers in that area. They tell us they don’t have officers to post there,” said Mr Mbadi.
Samburu East MP Raphael Letimalo also asked the committee to investigate the activities of British and Kenya army officers who operate camps in the constituency.
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