Border Row: Kisumu leaders want petition withdrawn

Muhoroni MP James K'Oyoo

Kisumu County leaders have asked their Nandi counterparts to withdraw a petition seeking to review the border shared by the two counties to have key agricultural towns belong to the latter.

Muhoroni MP James K'Oyoo, his Nyando counterpart Jared Okello and Kisumu Senator Fred Outa yesterday said the petition could fuel tension along the border.

They asked Nandi leaders to stop “stoking fresh flames of border skirmishes,” saying the areas around the town the Nandi leaders are claiming have experienced explosive confrontations resulting in deaths and destruction of property, in the past.

The MPs spoke as Mzee Odungi Randa, a member of the Luo Council of Elders, said the towns cited by the Nandi leaders - Muhoroni, Kibos, Kopere, Chemelil  and Kibigori - had been on the Kisumu side of the border even before independence.

Randa, who is also a former aide to the late Opposition leader Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, claimed the Nandi leaders preparing the petition were young.