Dar Es Salaam — MARWA Ntagira (63), a small peasant residing at Kegonga village in Tarime District, Mara Region, will not forget November 28, last year, when his lovely wife who was seven months pregnant, Kaguri, was shot dead allegedly by armed Kipsigis warriors from Trans Mara District in Kenya.

Ntagira's left hand was also chopped off during the same incident, in which he says the warriors from the neighbouring country terrorised the village for about three hours.

"They raided our home and opened fire on us. After shooting me they shot my wife on the chest she died a few minutes later," Ntagira recalls when speaking to the 'Daily News' last week.

Ntagira believes the attacks were carried out by Kenyan policemen, in collaboration with Kipsigis tribesmen from Trans Mara District, which is bordering Tarime district on the Tanzanian side.

"I saw with my own eyes a man spotting Kenyan police uniforms he opened fire on us, fortunately our children were not harmed the raiders grabbed all of our belongings," Ntagira narrates.

Ntagira was rushed to Tarime District Hospital, where he was treated and later on discharged. Since then, he has been working tirelessly to feed his five children left by his wife Kaguri.

According to the Kuria tradition, men have limitations when it comes to performing house-hold duties, but in the absence of his wife, Ntagira is now compelled to do everything. "My wife has left me with five children.

I have to work hard to ensure I provide them with food and send them to school," he laments while working on his farm situated very close to the border with Kenya.

Several families including that of Ntagira, have fled their original homes for fear of attacks allegedly carried out by armed warriors belonging to the Kenyan Kipsigis community.

Members of some fleeing families lamented that Kipsigis tribesmen have also stole their belongings such as ploughs, hoes and mattresses, leaving them in a pathetic situation.

"They have invaded my home twice and grabbed everything including mattresses. We are now living like refugees," complained Muniko Sagire from the neighbouring Mangucha village.

Another resident of Kegonga village, Matiko Ntagira, said he and his family had been driven from their home where they had lived for the past 20 years, several kilometres from the border.

"I have become a refugee with my kids. We have no food because of Kipisigis," Matiko laments, appealing for food relief from the government and good samaritans. Mrs Bhoke Yasi, a maize farmer near the border, says it is risky to cultivate in the area.

"You can't come to work on the farm here if you are weak, because immediately we see them (Kipsigis) we have to escape very fast before they catch us," Mrs Yasi told the 'Daily News.' She adds:

"Even if we manage to cultivate maize, they sometimes come to harvest everything by force." Kegonga village chairman, Chacha Tugara, says about 30 hectares of fertile land has been abandoned by a number of peasants on the Tanzanian side, citing insecurity as the major problem.

This has plunged scores of families into hunger, forcing them to rely on a single meal per day. Women and school children have been badly hit by starvation in the village with around 5,000 people.

"Many families are now going with a single meal per day and this is an obstacle for the village development. We want guns from the government to be able to protect ourselves, because some policemen who come here are also afraid of the Kipsigis," the village chairman observes.

Presently, Kegonga police post that serves the villages situated at the border, has three policemen whom local leaders say is like having none, given the insecurity situation at the border.

Mangucha village chairman Patrice Sereka, blamed security organs, claiming they have failed to provide sufficient security to civilians living in the two villages.

"Many families have fled their homes due to insecurity and we have been reporting this issue to the high authorities, but no action has been taken," complains Sereka.

But Regional Police Commander (RPC) for Tarime Special Police Zone, Constantine Masawe, says the security situation in the border villages has improved greatly compared to last year.

"Most of the families shifted from the areas close to the border this year when the situation worsened, but at the moment there are no threats in the villages," the regional police chief told the 'Daily News.'

The RPC says patrols have been intensified in the villages, following the formation of the Tarime special police zone that came into effect last July.

The government says it has been forced to transform Tarime district into a special regional police zone, in a bid to contain clan clashes and rampant cross border cattle rustling which is also a major source of conflict in villages situated along the border.

The decision has started bearing fruits in the district, according to Mr Masawe. "We are always visiting the villages and there are no more peace threats. Maybe they still flee because of mere fear, but the situation is ok," the RPC notes.

Mr Masawe says he was only aware of a woman who fled her home recently, after unspecified number of cattle rustlers passed close to her house with the stolen animals.

However, the RPC reveals that plans are afoot to conduct a special operation against cattle rustlers, as well as to increase the number of law enforcers at Kegonga police post. But he adds that the police cannot manage to provide security to every peasant, while working on his farm in the villages.

"They must form security groups because we don't have enough cops to guard every individual peasant, while working on his or her farm and the government has no plans to provide guns to civilians," the RPC says.