Butere residents hold demonstrations against increased insecurity

A sword with traces of blood. [File, Standard]

Residents of Butere Constituency, Kakamega County held peaceful demonstrations on Friday morning lamenting over increased insecurity in the area.

They said a gang calling itself Forty Two Brothers has been terrorising villages for months now, leaving a trail of death and pain in its wake.

The gang has killed at least 12 people and injured 40 others in the last 6 months. Whenever it has struck, the gang, whose members are said to be between 15 and 25 years old, has left behind a common calling card: bodies with tongues, genitals and eyes ripped out.

Those killed had their throats slit and their bodies dumped close to their homesteads.

In a recent incident, a woman was stabbed to death by unknown people while going to work in the morning barely 100 metres from Butere Police Station.

Police have not been able to identify the gang members, leading to accusations of laxity from the villagers, who say they have provided numerous leads.

“We are demanding for our rights. Police officers should work with residents to ensure that security measures are tightened,” a resident said.

The residents are also demonstrating against the killing of a mechanic, Zachariah Angatia, by the police during a chase with bodaboda operators in the area on October 30, 2018 at night. They want action to be taken against the police officer.

Divisional Criminal Investigations Officer (DCIO) David Cheruiyot said that post-mortem of the victim will be done today.

“Investigations are ongoing on this unfortunate incident where a mechanic was accidentally shot by one of us. If the investigations find that the shooting was uncalled for then action will be taken against the police officer,” said Cheruiyot

He said that they are yet to confirm that the 42 brothers are present in the region since they do not have any list of persons involved.

“We are trying our level best to get hold of this people but we cannot say an organized criminal gang is present in Butere Constituency until we prove so” he added.