The death toll of Kenyan police is steadily rising as sources now put the figure at 22.
Over the course of the weekend, a deadly ambush on police in the northern region of Kenya in Turkana County took the lives of 20 police officers and 2 civilians. Less than 24 hours ago, media sources reported that the death toll amounted to 8. Yet the anonymous Kenyan officials have stated that the figure is far higher.
Moreover, most of the people that have gone missing in the attack have been declared dead by one anonymous senior police officer.
The attack has been blamed on local tribesmen who frequently settle local rivalries in the area. Yet the frequent scenes of violence also stem from increasingly scarce water supplies and reduced grazing land which has engendered competition often fought at a deadly cost by competing herders.
Indeed, this is not the first time that the locality has witnessed such events. Two years ago, 40 police officers who attempted to avert a cattle theft and pursued the would-be criminals, were killed.
Moreover, just last week 5 people, among them policemen, fell victim to a similar ambush to that over the weekend. With police often finding themselves outnumbered both in manpower and firepower due to the ease with which people may acquire guns illegally, such scenes are not expected to dwindle in the immediate future.
