Nine people are dead and scores injured after an evening of horror in Mukutani Village of Tiaty Sub-County in Baringo.
Suspected Pokot bandits imposed a reign of terror on the hamlet on Tuesday evening to avenge the killing of two Pokot women who were shot dead in a police vehicle on Tuesday morning.
DEEP CUT
The bandits attacked the village at 5pm, slashing and shooting people, including children, according to those who survived the attack.
They killed five women and four children.
Among the survivors is a little boy, who is fighting for his life at Marigat District Hospital with a bullet lodged in his chest.
The boy suffered a deep cut on the head and bled profusely.
Other villagers who escaped death narrowly, one adult and two children, were also rushed to the hospital on Wednesday morning.
BANDITS
Medical workers including doctors, who resumed work today after a 100-day strike, were busy attending to the boy when the Nation visited the hospital.
The bandits targeted Mukutani market centre and Mukutani Primary School, where women and children were camping after fleeing their homes in fear of bandit attacks.
The two Pokot women were killed not far from the centre by suspected Ilchamus bandits who ambushed a police vehicle early Tuesday.
They had been offered a lift on their way to Kabarnet to collect cash for orphans.
19 AREAS
Mukutani is among the 19 areas gazette as disturbed and dangerous by Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery and is covered by the ongoing security operation launched by Deputy President William Ruto three weeks ago.
It is not clear why the hundreds of officers deployed to the county did not repel the bandits.
Survivors said police were nowhere to be seen during the attack, only to arrive six hours later to collect the bodies.
