2 held over inter-clan clashes
2005-07-20 21:18
Nairobi - Kenyan police said on Wednesday they had arrested two local officials in connection with the murder of nine people in an apparent revenge attack for a deadly village massacre in northern Kenya last week.
The pair, from the Gabra clan, were detained on Tuesday after they were identified by a witness as being involved in the slaying of nine members of the rival Borana clan after Borana raiders attacked the village of Turbi, they said.
"We arrested two chiefs because we believe they were involved or were among the people who killed nine people after the Turbi massacre," said Robert Kipkemoi Kitur, assistant police commissioner in Eastern Province where the violence occurred.
"A survivor of the attack identified the two chiefs as being among people who attacked them," said Kitur from the provincial of Embu. "If we find it is true, then we shall straightaway charge them with murder for their heinous act."
Nine suspects in custody
The incident, in which 10 Boranas riding in a church van driven by a Catholic priest were pulled out and all but one beaten to death, took place within hours of the July 12 raid on Turbi which targeted members of the rival Gabra clan.
The massacre at Turbi, about 580km northeast of Nairobi, the church van killings and other revenge attacks in the region, killed at least 82 people, including 26 children.
The arrest of the two administrators from Moyale district brings to nine the total suspects now in custody for alleged involvement in the grisly cycle of inter-clan violence rooted in long-standing disputes over water and pasture in the semi-arid region, according to police.