'Mum was slaughtered like a goat', says boy of Baringo church massacre

A seven-year-old boy hiding with his family in a Baringo church watched as bandits slaughtered his mother "like a goat".

"I saw my mother shot before her neck was cut with a sharp knife, like a goat,” Ian Lesiambui told the Star as he described the church massacre on Tuesday in Makutani.

He wept uncontrollably as he clung to his grandmother at the Christian Faith Church where he is taking refuge.

Displaced residents and pupils board a Kenya Red Cross vehicle as they flee Mukutani, Baringo county where Pokot bandits killed 11 people on Tuesday, March 14, 2017. /JOSEPH KANGOGO

Nine people — four mothers and five children — were murdered at the Full Gospel Church, Makutani where they had fled after Pokot bandits attacked their village.

The attack raised the one-day death toll to 11.

Read: Despite heavy security, bandits kill 9, torch houses in latest Baringo attack

The Full Gospel church had been surrounded by about 200 bandits who entered it and opened fire.

Earlier they had torched an AP camp.

They later rampaged through the village, burning houses and looting stores.

Persons displaced by bandit attacks in Baringo county camp at Eldume primary school in Marigat. /JOSEPH KANGOGO

There were several survivors, including a seven-year-old Senteiyo Kateiyo who suffered a serious head wound and a bullet lodged in her chest.

Lesiambui who is a class two pupil of Makutani primary said the bandits fled immediately after their latest raid in Baringo South Sub-county .

He has a two and a three-year-old sibling.

They are under the care of the CFC Church in Marigat town.

"I received the kids on Wednesday and since then well-wishers and neighbours have been supplying milk to feed them," The Church Bishop Grace Tamar said.

A Kenya Red Cross official during an evacuation exercise in Baringo South subcounty. /JOSEPH KANGOG

World Vision had also provided tents and foodstuff to some other 27 residents camped at the CFC Church.

The attack has raised the death to 21 and displaced more than 30,000 residents including school children.

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