Three hurt as farmers and herders clash in Lamu and Kwale

Three people have been injured in two separate incidents between farmers and herders in Kwale and Lamu.

Large tracts of farmland with crops were also destroyed in the violence that began in Lungalunga, Kwale on Saturday, and spread to Lamu.

According to witnesses, Sistine Mwashuma was shot and wounded in her farm at Kakate village in Witu by herders after she resisted their attempts to graze on her farm.

She was taken to Mpeketoni sub-district hospital in serious condition.

Reports indicate that the herders, who destroyed more than five acres that had green maize, fled after the shooting and remain at large.

Francis Mugo, a youth leader, urged security agents to probe the matter and evict herders encroaching private property.“I call upon the DCI and police officers to speedily arrest the herders who injured a farmer who was protecting her yields from being destroyed by animals.”

Lamu County Commissioner Simon Macharia and the local police boss called a security meeting to discuss the rising tension between herders and farmers.

Security has been deteriorating since herders began arriving in Lamu from Garissa and Tana River Counties last month.

In June, Lamu Haki Africa representative Yunus Is’hakia asked the county government to establish a grazing corridor for herders so as to minimise conflict.

Separately, two people are nursing injuries in Lungalunga, Kwale County following clashes between farmers and nomadic herders last Saturday.

The incident happened in Musonga, Mwereni location, a few kilometres from Kenya’s border with Tanzania.

Reports indicated that a herder was slashed on the hand, prompting his colleagues to launch a retaliatory attack that left a farmer with deep cuts on the head.

Lungalunga police boss Peter Dzimbi Mutua said a multi-agency team had been deployed to monitor the situation.