Two senior government officials have appealed for calmness in the troubled Borabu-Sotik border following tensions that engulfed the region after members of Kipsigis community set ablaze three houses belonging to Kisii community as retaliation to an incident in which a member of Abagusii community allegedly burnt a house belonging to his Kipsisgis neighbour.
The Thursday evening incident led to a fight in the region that saw at least five people critically injured and rushed to Tenwek hospital for further treatment.
Speaking at Riontonyi area on Sunday, Mrs Josephine Onunga (Nyamira) and Bernard Leparmaria (Bomet) urged residents to remain calm and embrace peace talks convened by the government.
“It’s not important that every time we have a disagreement we should go to war. The government has been coordinating a series of peace rallies in this region and it’s good to live together as a team and embrace unity. This tribal animosity is taking as nowhere,” Onunga said.
Mr Leparmaria called the residents to embrace dialogue and reconciliation saying the government would not tolerate wars generating from tribal hatred.
“A dialogue is important for his wellbeing of our people. Going to war will not solve anything and so it’s paramount that you remain calm and embrace reconciliation meeting as a community. The country has made remarkable strides in promoting peace and we won’t allow people to ignite tribal differences,” he said.
The two officials pledged to deploy more security forces to restore peace in the region and invited local leaders to join peace campaigns.
“Sometime dealing with tribal differences is very cumbersome. We have decided to deploy more forces here but it’s important that the locals remain calm as we sort out the matte with local leadership and community leaders,” Mrs Onunga said.
It’s not yet clear why the two communities were yet again involved in traditional sharp differences but one of the locals blamed the matter on cattle rustling.
“The man who set his neighbour’s house a blaze had lost his three cows and accused the Kipsigis neighbor of being behind the incident. This is just the issue of cattle rustling,” said Peter Mokenye.