Bandits on Sunday night staged yet another attack in Lomelo, Turkana East Sub-County, where they fired indiscriminately and torched a fence around a gated village.
According to residents, the bandits, suspected to be from neighbouring Baringo County, unleashed terror just before midnight, forcing them to leave their homes and spend the night in one area of the village for their safety.
This is the fifth attack on the village this month, carried out barely a week after bandits had staged daring attacks in Turkana and Baringo counties last Wednesday.
Mr Sylvester Ekidor, the Lomelo village administrator, said nobody was killed or injured during the attack.
Locals are now questioning how bandits are still carrying out attacks them even after Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki declared a 30-day dusk-to-dawn curfew in five banditry-prone counties as part of the ongoing multi-agency security operation.
The most daring attacks on the village were on February 6 where four people were killed and two injured, and another one on February 18 when the village was under siege with gunshot ringing the air from 6pm to 10pm, Mr Ekidor said.
In the February 6 attack, the bandits ambushed herders who were taking their livestock to graze in the nearby hills, which is currently the most reliable source of pasture for drought-hit border area.
In Sunday’s incident, Mr Ekidor said that villagers slept in the cold as they left their individual homes for fear of attacks. He accused security forces of not coming to their aid following the attack.
“Without an operation that is aimed at forcefully disarming the bandits…residents of Lomelo, Nadome, Akujatis, and Napeitom villages will not appreciate the existence of a security operation,” he added.
According to Ms Cynthia Ekai, another resident, most of their livestock have been stolen in sustained attacks.