Residents recount atrocities

By Abdisalan Ahmed and Boniface Ongeri

The first people to testify at the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission’s hearings in Garissa gave moving testimonies of multiple massacres by State agents.

During the commission’s first day of hearings at the Garissa Library, the commission heard about Garissa Gubaay (1980), Bulla Kartas (1981) killings, the emergency law after the 1963-1969 shifta uprising in the then Northern Frontier District, the Dadaab and Liboi atrocities meted on the residents by the Government.

"In 1967, I saw people being killed in Dujis and my two my sisters were among them. We were roughed up, our property stolen and forced into submission," said Hamud Sheikh Mohammed.

Garissa massacre

Hamud said they forced to seat under searing son as military officers killed their camels. At one time while in Sangailu, Ijara District, Hamud said military officers forced people to sit on hot metal rods.

He said during the 1980 Garissa Gubaay massacre, over 300 people were killed while others are unaccounted for todate. Women were raped and many people ran away to Somalia for safety.

He accused the then North-Eastern PC Benson Kaaria and then Internal Security Minister GG Kariuki of masterminding the brutal killings after a deadly banditry attack in Garissa that caused the death of a district officer and two security officers.

"The Government made its own people destitute through killing, torture and loss of livestock", Hamud moaned.

Former PC Francis Sigei is expected to give his testimonies to the commission today. The hearing continues until Thursday.