By Bonface Mulyungi

Seven people have been killed in cold blood in Tseikuru subcounty, Mwingi North, after a gang of about 40 heavily armed bandits launched a deadly gun raid on a local trading centre.

The attackers, armed with automatic rifles and machetes, raided Kwa Kamari Trading Centre at around 2 pm, indiscriminately opening fire on residents.

Six men and one woman were killed in the assault.

According to Tseikuru Deputy County Commissioner Ann Mwangi, the assailants—believed to be members of a pastoralist community—had earlier encroached into the Mwingi North Game Reserve to graze their camels.

They reportedly arrived at the scene in two unmarked Probox vehicles.

Mwangi, speaking by phone on Saturday evening, said the victims’ bodies, bearing gunshot wounds and deep machete cuts, were taken to Kyuso Level IV Hospital morgue.

She added that one man survived the attack but sustained gunshot injuries and is currently fighting for his life at Tseikuru Level IV Hospital.

The attackers razed three shops, a petrol station and a motorcycle, Mwangi said.

The authorities suspect the killings are part of a series of retaliatory attacks between pastoralist groups and local residents in the Kwa Kamari area, which borders the Mwingi Game Reserve.

“It is retaliation after a herder from one community killed a herder from another in the game park. This appears to be a counterattack,” Mwangi said.

Following the daylight incident, residents of Kwa Kamari and the surrounding areas have fled their homes, fearing further violence.

“These people are ruthless. They arrived and, within about an hour, seven people were dead. They also torched a petrol station and several shops,” a local resident Kilonzo Mughi said.

He added that villagers have sought refuge in nearby bushland, worried that the attackers may return.

Farms and homes now lie abandoned, leaving the area eerily deserted.