The Nation (Nairobi)
Barnabas Bii and Peter Ng'etich
27 October 2009
Nairobi — A peace meeting in Eldoret was on Tuesday disrupted after a bleeding man walked into the venue and said he had been attacked.
Violence erupted after the failed meeting and police moved in to restore calm at Kapkarren Estate.
Dozens of people were injured in the fighting, a sign of the tension in Eldoret town, one of the flashpoints of ethnic chaos at the last election.
The meeting had been called following last week's killing of a motorcycle taxi man, 24-year-old Vincent Kiprop, 24.
Mr Kiprop's body was found in a maize garden at Kapsaret, near Eldoret town, sparking violent protests in which a vehicle was burnt on Sunday.
During Tuesday's meeting, which had been convened by Wareng district commissioner Alex ole Nkoiyo, trouble started after part of the crowd burst into war songs on seeing the injured man, who was being taken to hospital by Administration Police officers. The man was reportedly attacked less than a kilometre from the venue of the meeting.
Mr Nkoiyo ended the meeting prematurely when the crowd failed to heed his advice to calm down.
Some of those at the meeting took refuge at Yamumbi transit camp while others boarded vehicles back to their homes.
Earlier, speakers had demanded that the security team be overhauled, accusing it of being engaged in corruption instead of fighting crime. The residents called for a combined effort by all community leaders to fight crime.
Killed by criminals
Residents of Simat, an estate in the area, claimed nine people had so far been killed by criminals in the past few months.
Unlike other crime-hit parts of the country, incidents in Eldoret are often given an ethnic interpretation.
The Sunday protests saw angry youths torch a vehicle after the discovery of the taxi man's body.
Mr Kiprop is reported to have been abducted on October 20 at Small Town, near Kipkarren estate.
Relatives said he had gone to Eldoret Town to repair his motorcycle but on the way back was apparently stopped by someone pretending to be a passenger.
According to one version of events, the passenger asked to be dropped off near a red car at Small Town but when he got there he was bundled into another car.
A cleric who later tried to rescue Mr Kiprop was told that he had been involved in a hit and run accident.
Mr Kiprop was allegedly driven to Yamumbi Police Station, and that was the last time he was seen alive. His body was found about 10 kilometres from where he is reported to have been hijacked.
Two people have been arrested in connection with the killing.
"More people are likely to be arrested as investigations are intensified," said Mr ole Nkoiyo.
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