Alex Kiarie, AfricaNews reporter in Nairobi, Kenya
At least fifty people, mostly women and children were killed in a dawn raid in the Kenyan Coastal region of Tana River on Tuesday, in revenge attacks over pasture. The attack is believed to have been carried out by members of the Pokomo community against the pastoralist Orma community.
Members of the Pokomo community, armed with guns, spears and machetes, staged a dawn raid on the Orma, in revenge of the attacks carried out by the latter last week that left around five people dead, and tens of livestock killed or injured.
The previous attack was prompted by the defensive approach that the Pokomo took, when members of the mainly pastoralist Orma grazed their cattle on the crops of the Pokomo. Skirmishes erupted, leaving the five members of the Pokomo dead, including three children. It is then that the Pokomo staged a revenge attack on Tuesday that left the fifty two dead.
Of those killed in the Tuesday attack, 31 were women, 11 were children. 100 houses were torched. Some of those killed were burned alive as they slept in the houses, while others were hacked to death. Some too were shot. Scores of livestock were also killed and maimed.
The row over resources between the Bantu Pokomo and the Cushitic ethnic communities that reside in Tana River District, has been simmering over the years, and sporadic skirmishes have been erupting from time to time. But the Tuesday attack on the Orma by the Pokomo has shocked the whole country, and has been billed as the worst ethnic violence since the 2007-08 post election violence.
The Orma, Wardei and malokote communities belong to the Cushitic group of tribes, and are closely related to the Somali community in many ways. The Pokomo on the other hand, are Bantu speakers and are mainly farmers.
President Mwai Kibaki sent a message of condolence to the affected families and promised a thorough investigation. The local administration has been blamed for the slow response in resolving the simmering row, while the security apparatus has also come under fire, for slow response.
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