Senator Onyonka concerned about killings over land related conflicts

Kisii senator Richard Onyonka raised concerns about the rising wave of killings across the country stemming from land disputes.

This comes after five members of a family were brutally murdered in Metembe village, Masaba South Sub-County, Kisii County, in April this year, where their homes were torched in a retaliatory mob attack rooted in longstanding land conflicts.
Two other family members narrowly escaped.

Another family in Kisii County is also under threat.
According to a report at Nyamasibi Police Post, Evans Obiero, his wife Kerubo and their children have fled their home after receiving death threats from armed gangs over a polygamy-related land dispute.

In Siaya County, nine family members were burnt to death in an arson attack in Sigomere, Ugunja Sub-County, on 22nd April 2025, over a land feud.

While requesting a statement from the Standing Committee on National Security, Defence and Foreign Relations on the floor of the Senate this afternoon, Senator Onyonka said that these incidents highlight a growing national crisis of land-related killings and urged the Committee to explain to the Senate the immediate and long-term security measures contemplated by the Government to protect families under threat from land disputes across the country.

He tasked the Senator Fatuma Dullo-led Committee to investigate the matter and state the progress made in the investigation and prosecution of perpetrators involved in the recent killings in Kisii and Siaya counties, and the reasons for the slow or inadequate response by local law enforcement in the affected areas, despite formal reports.

“The Committee must also tell us whether the Government could consider forming a national taskforce or commission to address the root causes of recurring and now deadly land-related conflicts,” Onyonka said.

The National Security Committee is expected to conduct investigations on the matter and report to the Senate the policy interventions put in place by the Government to facilitate mediation and resolution of polygamy-linked land inheritance disputes.
In the Kisii case, no arrest has been made. Police have arrested prime suspects in the Siaya saga.