This archive report was first published on 13 July 2020.
On Monday, a road crash in Nyangati village, Kirinyaga County, left a motorcycle rider dead after a miraa vehicle heading to Nairobi from Meru collided with him.
Angry residents confronted the driver and started beating him up in protest, but police intervened and rescued him. However, the mob turned against the officers, beating them with clubs and other crude weapons, leaving them seriously injured.
It took the intervention of another contingent of security agents to save the lives of the two officers and the driver from the wrath of the attackers.
During the skirmishes, one of the residents accused of being involved in the brutal attack was arrested and taken to Wang'uru Police Station.
Mwea East Deputy Police Commander Luka Chebet condemned the attacks, warning that all those who wounded the officers while on official duty must be arrested and prosecuted.
Mr. Chebet noted that the police acted fast and managed to save the driver from the residents who wanted to eliminate him.
Speaking to journalists later, the residents expressed their unhappiness with the many fatal accidents occasioned by reckless miraa drivers, lamenting that their pleas to the government to have sanity restored along local routes have fallen on deaf ears.
Mr. Chebet warned the residents to stop taking the law into their hands, saying they should have arrested the driver and handed him to the police for questioning but not to assault him.
The incident comes barely three days after another one in which residents attempted to lynch a miraa car driver in Difathas town.
