More than 100 residents of Mutha Ward in Kitui South Constituency are sleeping in the cold after their homes were torched in what appears to be a deliberate arson attack by individuals believed to be Somali pastoralists, Channel 15 News can authoritatively report.
Exclusive photos obtained by Channel 15 News show huts reduced to ash, household items strewn across blackened fields, and families huddled under trees with only scraps of bedding for warmth. Locals accuse the attackers—described as a controlled crowd of goons—of invading their farms, grazing livestock by force, and setting entire homesteads ablaze.
“They stormed our land with their animals, torched everything, and no authority came to help us,” said one distraught woman, her voice trembling as she sheltered her children from the bitter night air.
Despite repeated appeals, local leaders—both MPs and county officials—have remained silent, providing neither relief nor condemnation. This comes in sharp contrast to the pledge made in April by Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen, who during the Jukwaa la Usalama Lower Eastern Region forum in Kitui on April 24, 2025, promised long-term solutions to recurring farmer–herder conflicts.
The CS, after meeting the Eastern Regional Security Committee, assured residents that violent grazing disputes would be brought under control. Nearly four months later, families remain displaced, unprotected, and unheard.
On Friday, during an empowerment event for boda boda operators at Mutomo AIC Grounds—with Mwala MP Hon. Eng. Vincent Musyoka Musau, alias Kawaya, as the chief guest—Kitui South MP Dr. Rachel Kaki stunned residents with an admission that she knows the people behind the violence.
“I know them—they are my friends. Why can’t they stop this carmel business? They are rich. I know they are not happy with the ongoing deaths of our people and their pastoralists,” Kaki told the gathering. She further attributed the chaos to criminal networks linked to former Kamiti Prison escapees, referencing the November 2021 jailbreak in which three terror convicts—Musharaf Abdalla, Joseph Juma Odhiambo, and Mohammed Ali Abikar—fled Kamiti Maximum Prison but were captured in Mwingi, Kitui County, while allegedly attempting to reach Somalia.
The MP also confirmed that at least seven homesteads, each housing around 40 people, were destroyed in the recent attack, deepening the humanitarian toll in Mutha Ward. For the second night running, families are sleeping in the open, surviving only on donated blankets and makeshift shelters.
“We were promised help,” the same villager added bitterly. “But here we are, freezing and abandoned. Our leaders have vanished.”
Channel 15 News will continue to demand answers from both county and national authorities on why these families remain unprotected—and why Kitui South leaders appear unwilling or unable to stop the violence.
