Three Killed, Houses Torched In Extended Fight Over Family Land

Three people were on Saturday, March 4 killed in the Sugubo area, Nyacheki Bobasi in Kisii County following a prolonged family land dispute.

Reports revealed that Haron Kerandi was attacked by the family members of James Kerandi Omwega as well as members of the community in an incident that saw property of unknown value destroyed when three houses were burnt.

Three male employees of the home were also murdered; one was fatally injured by the attackers while two others died in the fire.

House burnt down during an incident in Kisii on March 4, 2023. /CITIZEN DIGITAL

“Today at around 1500hrs they were attacked by the family members of one James Kerandi Omwega and members of the community whereby three houses were burnt whose value yet to be established consequently three male employees of the home were murdered,” read a section of a police report.

Two of them were killed after the house they were guarding was set ablaze by an enraged mob while another person was slaughtered he attempted to flee from an enraged mob.

One person was rushed to hospital with critical injuries during the violent skirmishes, according to police. Those killed were farmhands guarding a property set up in a contested land

According to the police report, one male employee was critically injured and taken to Nyacheki hospital to seek medical attention.

Confirming the incident, OCPD Nyamache Kipkemboi Kipkulei stated that they visited the scene and cordoned off the homestead from angry community members, adding that more officers were deployed to the scene to quell tension.

Kipkulei added that they have launched an investigation to establish more about the cause of the incident.

The bodies of the deceased persons were transferred to Nyamache sub-county hospital awaiting autopsy.

The issue of land tussles was notably evident in the case of Baby Sagini, a boy whose eyes were gouged out by unidentified assailants in Kisii County on December 13, 2022.

Sagini's grandmother, Rael Nyakerario, claimed that her daughter-in-law and grandson had a sinister plot to harm the boy, in a statement to detectives.

She noted that the two, Pacifica Nyakerario and her son, Alex Maina Ochogo, sought to kill the child after discovering that he was a stepson who doesn't deserve to inherit the piece of land, whose value Sagini is too young to comprehend.

Police sources had revealed that Pacifica had abducted Baby Sagini by carrying him in a sack and taking him to the undisclosed location where she and Ochogo gouged out the baby's eyes.

In addition, the two beat him up and dumped him in the family's maize plantation believing that he was dead. Fortunately, Baby Sagini was found alive, but unconscious.