Lake Nakuru National Park has been set on fire.
Angry protestors set the national park ablaze as demonstrations over the disappearance of Brian Odhiambo continued.
At the same time, at least 20 Kimathi Secondary School students were taken to hospital for treatment after police lobbed teargas to disperse the irate crowd.
Odhiambo, a local fisherman, was reportedly taken by the KWS officers at Lake Nakuru National Park on Sunday, January 19, and his whereabouts have remained unknown since then.
According to Elizabeth Auma, Odhiambo’s mother, the fisherman was last seen in the company of KWS officers who were seen manhandling him after he was caught fishing in a restricted area within Lake Nakuru National Park.
“I saw two police officers near the Park's fence. They arrested Brian and threw him inside their vehicle. I pleaded with them to let us talk about the matter but my plea fell on deaf ears and they took Brian away,” Auma narrated.
Since then, Odhiambo’s disappearance triggered demonstrations with angry youth storming the Lake Nakuru National Park, blocking the road leading to the park while demanding Odhiambo’s release.
The crowd lit bonfires and placed stones on the road effectively blocking access to the park, which attracts hundreds of tourists daily.
At the onset of the protests, anti-riot police officers were deployed to the area to restore calm. The protesters ended up clashing with the police after engaging in running battles. The officers used tear gas to disperse the irate crowd.
The protests that have taken place for close to five days seem to have boiled over after the latest move by the protestors to light up the national park. The park is a massive tourist attraction and a great source of revenue for the Nakuru County Government.
Protestors took stern action despite the police revealing that they had arrested six KWS officers linked to Odhiambo’s disappearance. The arrests were confirmed by Samwel Ngeiywo, the Divisional Criminal Investigations Officer (DCIO) of Nakuru East.
The current situation seemingly exposed the ongoing conflicts over fishing rights at Lake Nakuru that have led to a series of deaths and disappearances.
On the other hand, the fire at the national park comes amidst the ongoing wildfire in Isiolo that has consumed close to 300,000 acres of land and spread to four villages.
The fire ravaging Isiolo's grasslands was reportedly caused by human error, as per the county commissioner Geoffrey Omunde.
"The cause of that fire, I'm told, was caused by people who were looking for honey," Omunde revealed. "Some were looking for honey while others wanted to clear tsetse flies and ticks so they were destroying that pasture to get rid of the pests."
