Two brothers died in Eregi village in Ikolomani, Kakamega County in a feud over the felling of trees on their father’s land.
Three other people including a police officer were injured and rushed to hospital nursing severe machete wounds after a disagreement over ownership of family trees.
The incident happened Saturday February 10 morning, police said.
The two brothers were in a family meeting convened by the area Assistant Chief to resolve a standoff over the trees when it turned chaotic and an argument ensued, leading to a fight.
Residents and family members said the brothers started fighting over the right to cut down trees on the land left behind by their late father.
Gunshots were fired in a bid to end the escalating fight as the brothers armed themselves with machetes and went for each other’s throat, witnesses said.
In the ensuing chaos, the two brothers died. Two police officers who tried to intervene the fighting were injured, police said.
Three spent cartridges were recovered from the scene of crime.
The bodies of the deceased have since been taken to the Mbale hospital mortuary.
Locals said police responding to the ensuing scuffle fired several shots, and when everything went silent, the two brothers lay dead.
Kakamega Senator Boni Khalwale said in a statement via X that he knows the family at a personal level.
He said the owner of the land, late Mzee Shisanya Angote, sold part of it to him after subdividing it and sharing it amongst his sons and daughters.
The senator said he built a polytechnic on the land he bought from the old man after the subdivision.
“It is very sad that his two sons have lost their lives while interfering with what their father gave to their sister, Madam Maureen Bunoro Shisany,” he said.
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