This archive report was first published on 6 July 2020.
Violence Erupts in Kisii County ¶
On July 5, 2020, hundreds of protesters took to the streets in Kisii County, demanding justice for the death of a local businessman allegedly shot by a police officer.
The incident occurred after the businessman got into an argument with the officer over the use of hand sanitizer. The protesters, who were chanting anti-police slogans, stormed the Rioma Police Station and set it ablaze.
According to eyewitnesses, the officers at the station had evacuated the area before the protesters arrived, but the crowd still managed to destroy the station and call for the officer responsible for the businessman's death to be arrested and charged with murder.
The Kisii incident is the latest in a series of alleged extra-judicial killings during the COVID-19 pandemic, with heavy-handedness in enforcement of regulations blamed for the deaths.
Earlier in July, protests were witnessed in Nandi County when a local shoe shiner was allegedly shot by police for not wearing a face mask. Two more Nandi residents were shot dead by police as they protested the shoe-shiner's death on the Nandi-Kapsabet highway.
Nakuru Senator Susan Kihika warned Police Inspector-General Hillary Mutyambai of an uprising if the situation worsened, stating, "I want to tell the Police and the IG, get prepared because we shall not sit and watch you do this to our fellow Kenyans. We will set all the police stations in Kenya on fire if that is what we have to do. "You cannot use guns because somebody asked you a question," she added.
