Lokichogio School closed indefinitely as tension remain high

Emmanuel Ekiru, one of the students who was injured in the attack at Lokichogio Mixed Secondary School recuperates at the Lodwar County Referral Hospital. [Bakari Ang'ela, Standard]

Sandra Awoi is nursing gunshot wounds after Saturday morning's attack at Lokichogio Mixed Secondary School.

The attack, blamed on Abraham Lochor, a fellow student from South Sudan, left five students and a school watchman dead and 18 with gunshot wounds.

Two female students were raped.

For Awoi, who is recuperating at the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH), Eldoret, the deafening sound of a gunshot and the excruciating pain in her leg as the bullet seared through it will remain engraved in her mind for the rest of her life.

She was the suspect’s first victim inside the girl’s dormitory.

Crashed in

“He came and knocked at the door of the dormitory. I asked him who he was and he just said ‘okay, fine’ and crashed in. He flashed on the light and shot me. He then placed a finger on his lips, signalling me to keep quiet,” she recounted.

The attacker left her bleeding and went to the next cubicle where two girls slept.

“I could hear them begging him to spare them. They kept shouting ‘forgive us forgive us’. He was hitting them with the gun,” she recounted.

The assailant shot the two girls, who are among the eight students referred to MTRH for specialised treatment from Lopiding Hospital in Kakuma refugee camp.

The attacker moved to the next cubicle but was disoriented by screams from the terrified students.

“The other girls screamed and that is when he left for the boy’s dormitory,” said Awoi.

Inside the boy’s dormitory, the assailant used a torch to lure his targets outside for what could have been a massacre. According to Joshua Ekal, another survivor, the attacker flashed the torch in the boys' dormitory. One of them screamed and the others rushed to see what was happening.

“He ensured that most of us were out trying to figure out what was happening and that is when he started raining bullets on us,” said Ekal.

Samuel Erukudi came face to face with the assailant during the attack when he switched on the lights inside the boy’s dormitory in the middle of the attack. Before he knew it, he was looking into the barrel of a gun.

“I knew it was Abraham Lochor because he marched to his school box and looked at me for some time. He shot our roommate Peter, Natoo. I switched on the light in shock and as soon as he realised that I had seen his face, he shot me in the shoulder as I tried to run away,” said Erukudi.

The school’s principal, Samuel Ewoi, said the student had, on several occasions, been reported for indiscipline, including one incident where he had an altercation with a female teacher.

However, it was the latest incident, where he was suspended for fighting another student, that sparked the killings.

“The issue arose when Lochor gave another student, Sh200 to buy something for him. But instead, the student spent the money. The two fought and I suspended them for two weeks. The other student came back to school after two weeks but Lochor never came back,” said Mr Ewoi.

Prime target

The headteacher is lucky to be alive. Before venting his fury on fellow students, Lochor shot at Ewoi’s house twice, but he was not at home.

The parents of the students who survived the attack are still in shock. They blamed the police for not acting fast enough to save lives.

“I have not stopped crying. I thought I was going to lose my daughter. Had the police responded fast enough, some children would have been saved,” said Rose Etyang.

County government officials want Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i to order an audit of the security situation in all schools near the Kenya-South Sudan border. They also want the Government to compensate affected families.

“It was the failure on the part of the Government that caused loss of all those lives,” said Deputy Governor Peter Lotethiro.

The school was ordered closed indefinitely due to heightened tension both inside and outside the institution.

Police said they were working with their counterparts in the neighbouring South Sudan to arrest more suspects. Lochor, the main suspect, was lynched by angry residents.

At the referral hospital, Dr Wilson Aruasa said the students were in a stable condition.

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