Two killed, 10 injured as villagers clash with police

At least two people were killed and ten others injured among them Trans Nzoia County Assembly Speaker Joshua Werunga following confrontation between villagers and police yesterday.

The villagers were shot by police officers at Kalongolo village in Kwanzaa in a bloody confrontation when the officers went to arrest a man suspected to have attacked a woman.

One police officer involved in the shooting was disarmed and arrested as a probe into the incident goes on.

The injured are in hospital. A police car was pelted with stones and seriously damaged in the drama.

Witnesses and police said three police officers had gone to the village to arrest  Dan Juma who is accused of assault. As they handcuffed the suspect, some locals raised alarm alerting villagers.

This marked the start of a long confrontation forcing police to shoot at the mob that swelled stoning them. The suspect managed to escape with the handcuffs. Police say it was then that two people were shot and killed and almost a dozen others injured.

 

The officers retreated to a local police post as they sought reinforcement from a team of General Service Unit operating from Chepchoina. When the team arrived, they were stoned forcing the car they were in to roll into a ditch. The vehicle had its windscreen smashed. Villagers told police they were angered by police move to shoot them without provocation.

Villagers refused to release one of the bodies in the confrontation and police were up to Sunday night trying to retrieve it.

In the meantime, the mob was sieging the local police post with stones as police fired to the air to scare them. Things calmed down minutes later giving officials room to visit the site. Werunga is said to have been hit by a blunt object in the melee.

A team of detectives has been sent to the area to investigate the incident.