RAID ON KENYA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 October 1939, Page 6

RAID ON KENYA

SEVERAL VILLAGES WIPED OUT. TRIBAL adventure. Mr Young, administrative officer, in charge of Kenya’s northern frontier province, an area equalling seven English counties, arrived in Nairobi recently in a Royal Air Force plane qnd reported personally to the Governor, Sir Robert Brooke-Popham, on a raid by Merille warriors on villages of the Turkana tribe the previous week, reports the “Johannesburg Star.” The casualties are at least 150 Turkana killed and owing to whole villages having been wiped out the authorities are faced with the difficulty of obtaining a connected story. The Merille from Abyssina, and mostly armed with rifles, silently descended on the sleeping Turkana at 4 o’clock in the morning, rushed into the huts, and butchered the inhabitants with spears and bullets. They then drove off thousands of cattle and goats. Despite the use of aircraft the raiders were not found and a punitive force mounted on camels has been searching a wide area with the intention of intercepting the Merille, who were thought to be probably making for the southern Sudan. This is the first large-scale raid since the Italian conquest of Abyssinia, but before that these raids were a frequent occurrence. The Merille are nomads and therefore it is difficult to establish administrative authority and responsibility which is shared by Abyssinia, Kenya, and the Sudan. The Turkana, who live mainly in Kenya, were disarmed some years ago and were easy victims for their traditional enemies. It does not seem likely that the raid was mainly, for spear-blooding as was originally reported, but officially it is regarded as a purely tribal adventure.