'I escaped death countless times': How a feared bandit laid down his gun for peace

When Arthur Komen was not dodging the hail of bullets from bandits and police officers, he was plotting a raid in caves within the troubled Kerio Valley.

Alongside peers, they would retreat into caves in the rugged Kerio escarpments in Elgeyo Marakwet, where a meticulous script to avenge a raid was written. 

But Komen, 30, is now a reformed rustler. He is a peace ambassador. 

On Sunday, September 7, his Damascus moment came. The father of three surrendered himself to police officers in the Kerio Valley and handed over his firearm and ammunition.

He joined the church and promised to lead efforts to restore peace in the troubled region.

In an exclusive interview with The Standard, the man who was on the list of most wanted persons for their involvement in the deadly banditry attacks in the Kerio Valley narrated how he survived death countless times before deciding to surrender on a Sunday.

On Monday evening, just a day after he surrendered to Kerio Valley sub-county police commander Zablon Okoyo, Komen asked for forgiveness as he officially kicked off his campaign to reform tens of bandits believed to be hiding in caves.

“On Sunday I regained my freedom. It has been many years of hiding in thickets and caves and dodging bullets,” Komen, a resident of Ketut village in the Kerio Valley, says.

The hitherto reformed bandit recounts moments where, alongside peers, they attacked and lost a number of friends. For months, he had thought about surrendering to authorities, but it wasn’t an easy move, he says.

He remembers how he called a number of police officers seeking their help to surrender, but he feared for his life whenever he wanted to make the bold move. His fears were compounded by the alleged abduction and disappearance of several suspects.

“On Sunday morning, I got the Kerio Valley Sub-County Police Commander’s contact, and when I called him, he immediately embraced my idea to surrender.

"He asked me to meet him, and that is when I asked my wife to accompany me and rode on a motorcycle to Chesongoch, where we had a lengthy meeting in the presence of religious leaders. It became a surprise to many people,” Komen explains.

In 2009, he lost his grandfather in a banditry attack in the valley and dropped out of Marakwet Boys High School before he was initiated in 2010. The death of his grandfather made him a bitter man. It was also the turning point of his life.

After his initiation ceremony in 2010, he joined Queen of Peace Secondary School near Chesongoch but dropped out again to engage in green gram farming.

He says he later left the volatile valley for Kitale after falling ill, and he returned in 2013, and he became a community warrior in 2017, guarding locals from cattle rustlers who were suspected to be from the neighbouring West Pokot and Baringo.

“Bandits from neighbouring counties were intensifying attacks at our grazing fields, and the community asked its young men to protect it and them and the county’s borders because the police were not doing enough, but it mutated from guarding innocent locals to engaging in raids.

“It has been very difficult for any youth engaging in banditry activities. I had fears, but I set myself free on Sunday,” he says.

He says police officers have trailed him for years and even attacked his home, destroying the house that he lived in with his wife and three young children.

In June, Komen says, heavily armed security personnel stormed my home and used their artillery to bring down my house and destroy crops.

“Luckily, my traumatised wife and the children were in the neighbourhood, and they fled upon witnessing the attack. I had to relocate my wife and children to my mother’s house, where we still live until now,” says Komen.

The peace ambassador goes on to say, “In August, weeks after my house and belongings were destroyed during the raid by the police, I organised a fund drive to help me start again, but when the event was about to begin, armed officers arrived at the venue, and we ran for our lives. I don't know how the police learnt about the function. They fired several shots, but we escaped without injuries.”

After the series of attacks, Komen says he is lucky that he was still alive. “I thought about the future of my young family without me. My firstborn-child is six years old, the second one is four years old, and the youngest is yet to go to school,” the ex-wanted man said.

On his Damascus moment on Sunday, Komen says he promised the clergy to fully join the Church after he had reformed all his friends who are still in hiding.

He says he began his mission to reform bandits by requesting the list of suspects on police radar. “I was given names of two young men to start with. On Monday I met the duo, and they assured me that they were ready to surrender. Security bosses have assured me of my safety and support in my campaign to reform my peers.

“I have briefed the sub-county commander of the meeting with the two wanted men. I’m ready to do my best to restore peace. Given the chance to be part of peace ambassadors in the troubled valley, I will work closely with security personnel, community elders and church leaders to discourage young men from engaging in the deadly vice,” added Komen.

Komen further said that young men who are wanted by the police were shocked by his move. “I will speak to the youth from the neighbouring Baringo and West Pokot,” he stated.

Chesongoch AIC cleric Reverend Barsiton Bowen urged the Kenyan government to forgive Komen and support him in leading other youths out of banditry.

Bowen said youths who are surrendering to authorities after years of engaging in banditry activities needed professional guidance and counselling in the rehabilitation journey.

“Komen and others have asked for forgiveness. We are urging the government to listen to pleas,” the cleric added.

Okoyo, the Kerio Valley sub-county police commander, on Sunday encouraged more youth to take advantage of an amnesty to surrender themselves and their firearms to the police.