Citizen TV journalists narrowly escaped an attack by bandits on Monday, November 3, after tensions erupted along the West Pokot and Turkana border, forcing them to flee.
The journalists, led by reporter Emmanuel Cheboit, had gone to cover the deteriorating state of security in West Pokot when people believed to be bandits ambushed.
During the incident, which took place in Kalomwai village located along the Turkana and West Pokot border, the armed bandits began to shoot aimlessly as they approached the area where Cheboit and a group of residents had gathered.
Cheboit, the Turkana correspondent for the media house, was forced to cut short his interviews before fleeing to nearby houses for safety.
A clip shared by Citizen TV showed the journalist and his colleagues running for their lives while gunshots rang out, with the incident depicting the extent of insecurity in the region.
Reports indicate that the surging insecurity in West Pokot has so far left at least ten people dead in the last two weeks, causing fear and panic among the residents living in the volatile border.
Two days ago, two people were shot in the Nakumori area as they headed home from a church service, with the armed bandits attacking a gold mining site a day later.
The bandits opened fire on a group of residents who were mining gold, forcing the locals to flee before the armed men went ahead to set ablaze an excavator worth Ksh16 million.
“These bandits are causing chaos in this region. Just recently, they attacked us while we were from an event organised by the governor. Luckily, we escaped. God helped us,” narrated a resident.
While lamenting over the insecurity level in the area, the residents have since called on President William Ruto’s administration to intervene and dispatch more law enforcement officers.
The latest development comes barely three days after Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen urged individuals involved in banditry to surrender their arms or face the law.
Murkomen noted that the government had offered a brief window for those holding illicit arms to surrender them to the nearest police officers without facing arrest.
