This archive report was first published on 3 August 2020.
On Monday, a group of youths stormed the Kisumu County Public Service Board offices in Milimani, Kisumu, armed with crude weapons.
According to eyewitnesses, the youths attacked and injured members of staff, including Chairman Charles Babu Karan, Prof Edward Joash Kochung, and other employees.
The group, led by Kisumu County Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) Vice-Chairman Kennedy Ajwang', popularly known as Jege Jege, demanded jobs in the county government.
Victor Nyagaya, senior advisor to Kisumu Governor Anyang' Nyong'o, described the attack as shocking and traumatising.
He was holding a meeting with Prof Kochung when the youths stormed into the offices.
“Professor was seeing me off when we met with armed young people who were hostile. The youth were complaining about what they termed as biased hiring of village administrators and revenue collectors in the county,” said Mr Nyagaya.
Mr Nyagaya said the youths were demanding appointment letters as reinforcement officers, claiming that some people were holding onto them.
They isolated Prof Kochung and roughed him up. Luckily, they did not use any crude weapons on him.
Earlier, the youths had forced their way into Prof Kochung's office and destroyed property, including doors and files.
Police officers from the forensics department were collecting samples from blood left at the scene of the crime.
Mr Nyagaya called the governor and informed him of the incident.
The governor's advisor confirmed that the attackers were known to him and was surprised that Mr Ajwang', who also works at Prof Nyong'o's liaison office, was leading the team.
It is alleged that Mr Ajwang' and his two children are employed by the county government, and he was demanding to know why his wife has also not been given a job.
Those who were injured during the attack were taken to hospital.
Mr Nyagaya asked for deployment of security officers at the government building to prevent such incidents in the future.
Hours later, another group attacked Mr Ajwang' at the ODM offices in a retaliatory attack.
