Goons ambush, beat up MCAs returning from a funeral in Kisii

Hell broke loose on Wednesday afternoon after armed goons attacked some Kisii MCAs in Bobasi.

The three(3)--Michael Motume (Masige East ) Naftal Onkoba, (Nyacheki) and Thomas Obare (Boitangare) were leaving a home in Masige West when they were waylaid and attacked by youths armed with crude weapons.

They however said relief came when some youths at the bereaved home rushed to rescue them.

Mr Motume said they managed to navigate their way out to safety after they had initially pushed the goons back and as they were negotiating with them, the youths from the bereaved family turned up and chased the goons, giving them time to leave the scene.

"We could be in a morgue right now," Mr Motume said during a night a press conference in Kisii.

They had gone to condole Dr Enoch Ondari, who had lost his mother, Mama Bathsheba Otieno.

Dr Ondari, a former Kisii Teaching and Referral Hospital chief executive had also recently announced a bid to challenge sitting Governor Simba in the 2027 elections.

The Ward Reps appeared to finger a colleague from the area for sponsoring the violence against them.

“Barely had we driven far from Ondari home when the goons challenged us to stop. No sooner had we slowed down, for they (the goons) appeared aggressive  than they started banging the car windscreens to force them open and asking that we alight,” he narrated.

We quickly stepped out and the youths began pouncing on us and beating us up.

" But quickly i dashed back to my car and picked a club  and with it we managed to push them back and begun to negotiate for our safety w and that is how they told us who  paid them to come and fight us," stated Motume.

They said they were in the area as a gesture of mercy and not for any political mission to warrant the attack.
"This was not their (goons) mother who had died. It was our friend's ... It's absurd that a colleague can turn against his colleague just because we have decided to differ in our political endeavours," added Mr Motume.

The MCAs insinuated the frosty relationship between them and Governor Simba Arati as among the suspect reasons they were attacked.

Boitangare MCA Thomas Obare condemned the growing political extremism and the culture of violence gripping Kisii at the moment.

Nyacheki MCA Naftal Onkoba said he was at the funeral in the capacity as a friend and relative of the Dr Ondari family and not as a politician to warrant the attack.

"Even when we don't subscribe to the same political ideologies, let's respect one another, the constitution gives all of us the freedom to travel anywhere and freely express himself as long it doesn't incite violence.

"I request all the Masige West residents to embrace peace so that we join hands in sending off Mama Bathsheba Otieno in a decent way," he said.