Baringo Governor Benjamin Cheboi and Rift Valley Regional Coordinator Wanyama Musiambo came face to face with the ongoing bloodbath after a peace meeting they were addressing in Mukutani came under attack.
The two were leading a contingent of security agents to the troubled Mukutani area in Baringo South where five women and four children were killed on Tuesday when the meeting was interrupted by gunshots.
According to witnesses, suspected Pokot bandits, who were allegedly hiding in a nearby thicket, shot in the air several times ostensibly to break the meeting where the government representatives were evacuating pupils and other vulnerable groups caught up in the melee.
The daring Wednesday afternoon attack apparently caught Governor Cheboi and Musiambo by surprise forcing them to take cover inside one of the armoured police vehicles. Fortunately, nobody was hurt during the attack that lasted for a few minutes.
Speaking to the press afterwards, Musiambo said that they were consoling the affected families when the attack happened.
He desperately called for a police chopper to evacuate them from the area which was not forthcoming. They were later escorted out of the area by two Armoured Personnel Carriers and a convoy of heavily armed security agents.
“Everything was going on well until some gunshots rent the air. They fired several shots into the air and I think their intention was to break the meeting,” a security aide of one of the officers told us.