OCS shoots and injures guard outside bar

By Sammy Jakaa

Transport along the busy Malaba-Busia highway was paralysed for hours as residents barricaded roads protesting the alleged shooting of a guard by a senior officer.

The protesters, who blocked the highway for over nine hours, accused Adungosi OCS William Cheruiyot of shooting and injuring Dennis Omukaga, 32, in the leg under mysterious circumstances.

Omukaga who works as a guard at a bar in the area claimed he was on duty when he saw a man approaching him in the dark.

He lit his spotlight and pointed it towards the person and realised it was the OCS.

“It is normal for us to point a spotlight on a person who approaches us. That is what I did when I saw a person walking towards me in the dark. I realised it was the OCS and before I could even switch it off, he shot me,” said Omukaga.

The brother of the victim who is also a guard at a nearby supermarket Okware Obukit said he heard gunshots followed by a whistle and rushed to the scene. He saw a man in a suit walking away. Obukit said he realised it was the OCS because he had seen him walking in that direction.

Attempted murder

He added that he saw Omukaga lying on the ground in pain and rushed him to Adungosi hospital where he is still undergoing treatment.

National Secretary of Victims and Survivors Network Maskini Okodoi who led the demonstration condemned the act, terming it a criminal offense.

Okodoi said that it was wrong for a police officer to go to a bar armed and demanded that the officer be arrested and charged for attempted murder.

It took the intervention of the Western PPO Alfred Ombaba and Deputy PCIO Musa Yego to cool down the charged crowd after several attempts by area DC Dennis Omosa failed.