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No peace for suspects in Kisii as lynch mobs take the law into their own hands
- Details
- Published on Monday, 04 June 2007 05:07
The man had earlier appeared before a local court on a robbery charge, but, as he tried to explain to a crowd that was clearly fed up with marauding gangs, he was released on bond.
But the crowd was convinced that he had escaped from custody and would soon be on the prowl, terrorising them with impunity. The angry villagers resolved to frog march him to the Kisii Police Station to confirm his story. But on reaching the Kisii-Kisumu-Migori junction, the suspect reportedly sat down in the middle of the road to protest his mistreatment. The enraged crowd could not stand his defiance and after the first stone had been cast, thousands more followed. The rest, as they say, is history. Police arrived moments later to find the man’s lifeless body lying by the roadside and took him to the district morgue.
Such scenes are experienced almost daily in Kisii District. Suspected criminals have found the going tough after people, fed up with being victims of terror, turned against them. Over the past three weeks alone, 15 suspected criminals have been lynched in Kisii town and its environs.
Residents say the thugs, who are often armed with guns and other weapons, have killed dozens of people. The public is further infuriated by the failure of law enforcers to dismantle gangs that have pitched tent in several parts of southern Nyanza. Now, they say enough is enough.
"They have killed our people and made us live in perpetual fear," said Kisii town Mayor Stephen Omurwa, probably expressing the feelings of hundreds of people. A chief, Ratemo Nyaberi, was shot dead at his gate within the town in mid-February. A week earlier, a schoolboy had been murdered about 300 metres from his parents’ home. Nothing was taken from the victims and area residents claim the chief was killed after he raided a house rented by suspected thugs and recovered a home made gun and four rounds of ammunition.
On March 7, Kiogoro District Officer, Agnes Shadrack, saved Councillor Peter Mogire Obara, 48, from death after he called her on his cell phone following an attack. Police officers arrived at his house to find the thugs shooting at him through a window.
Three days later, a hearse driver on his way to Homa Bay to collect a body was shot after thugs mistook his van for a passenger vehicle, according to police.
Within the same week, two people responding to distress calls by neighbours under attack were shot dead within Kisii town. In one of the incidents, a watchman was shot dead in Botori area as he attempted to rescue a robbery victim.
According to area deputy police boss Chemonges Ndiema, six heavily armed gangsters had blocked Ben Matwere’s way as he drove into his compound. The besieged Matwere raised the alarm to which the watchman responded, only to be shot in the chest. He died instantly. The robbers escaped in Matwere’s Nissan Sunny, which was later found abandoned at Nyatieko in Mosocho division, about 10km from the scene. Matwere was not injured in the incident.
In the other incident, a gang armed with an AK47 rifle confronted another resident, Stanley Kagora, in his shop in Kiongongi shopping centre on the outskirts of Kisii town and robbed him of Sh3, 000 and a mobile phone. Area District Criminal Investigation Officer, David Kirui, said police were making a breakthrough in investigating robbery incidents in Kisii. But, as local police with the assistance of the Flying Squad struggle to contain crime, investors are keeping away from Kisii due to insecurity. Mayor Omurwa wants the number of Flying Squad officers operating in the area increased and has appealed for more police cars to enhance security.
