Source: Abjata Khalif and Hassan Sheikh

9th October 2011

Land row and ownership dispute in Bulla Kartasi Village of Garissa County degenerated into armed conflict that sucked two clans inhabiting the village and its surroundings. The village is inhabited by two populous clans in Garissa namely Abdhwak and Auliayan and the dispute over a piece of land started when groups of youths descended on unoccupied land and started demarcating the land into portions.

Upon realizing the illegal demarcation carried out by youths from other clans, Abdhwak youth held an emergency meeting at Bulla Iftin which plans to over run the dermacation was planned and executed and they descended on the piece of land armed with sticks and other crude weapons like knifes and swords.

Soon the situation went nasty with each group attacking each other and pandemonium broke loose leading to death of two youths from Auliyan communities and dozens from both sides seriously injured and hospitalized in Garissa general hospital in bad conditions.

The incident snowballed into clan fights with each clan mobilizing its youth to retaliate on their rival and take control of the disputed land at Bulla Kartasi. The fight went on for two consecutive days and security authority intervened during the third day of the attack. The locals accuses the security agencies of acting to slowly thus exacerbating the clan fight that was caused by land ownership row.

During the second of the attack Garissa peace Chairman Mzee karur was attacked by youths from Auliayan as he went out to preach peace and paying condolences to families who lost their sons in the first day of the attack. He was stabbed three times and left for dead. He was later taken to Kenyatta Hospital.