Nine police officers are among 39 people who were killed in the Monday attack at Kilelengwani village by people believed to be Pokomos, on a retaliatory mission after a last week's attack by their rival community where about 13 people were killed.
According to Red Cross official Musa Hassan Musa nine officers were killed during the attack as they tried to rescue locals in a village which was being torched near Kilelengwani primary school police camp.
During the bloody incident about 165 houses were burnt and two police vehicles burnt as the attackers are also said to have made away with riffles and other police officers properties.
Already hundreds of police officers from General Service Unit, Regular police and Administration police were deployed in the area in three police vehicles to contain the situation as tension remained high at around 10 am.
A police officer from General Service Unit who survived right hand leg, thigh and right hand wounds during the incident, said the attackers were about 500 in number, armed with pangas, spears and guns.
Patrick Temba who has been in the Tana Delta district since June this year told journalists from his Malindi District Hospital bed that the incident occurred in the morning as they prepared to take breakfast and then parade.
"We had not even take breakfast when we heard distress call from the neighboring village and also saw houses being razed down by fire then we armed ourselves and headed there but as we tried to fight those attackers others had surrounded our camp and started killing whoever was there," he said.
"They were divided into different groups because as we fought, some were attacking residents, others were attacking us from behind and so it forced us to try our best and save our lives," he added.
Temba said some riffles were not working during that time and their effort to repulse attackers were futile hence some died and others ran away. It was during that time when he fought one of the attackers and since they were still coming he ran away to a nearby bush and laid down for his safety before he was rescued by his colleagues after the incident and taken to Witu Dispensary.
"There was even a group which was making sure bodies of their colleagues or those injured people during the attacks were carried away from the scene of the incident," he asserted.
Temba is among six other people who sustained injuries during the attacks who were referred to Malindi District Hospital from Witu Hospital according to Malindi Red cross coordinator Musa Hassan Musa.
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