A Deputy Officer Commanding Station (OCS) in Bungoma was killed after members of the public pounced on him accusing the police boss of killing a boda-boda rider.
Khachonge Police Station Deputy OCS Paul Kerich, who was lynched, is said to have shot 27-year-old George Simiyu four times after an argument.
The murdered officer was also accused of shooting a friend who had accompanied the victim during the incident.
The second victim survived the shooting and is recuperating at the Tongaren Health Centre.
[caption caption="Boda boda riders blok a road in Kakamega following a past death of one of their colleagues"]
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Animosity between the officer and the boda-boda operators is said to have begun after the riders led residents in a protest earlier on in the day.
Residents along with riders dug trenches and planted banana stems along the Ndalu-Hambichi Road protesting against its poor state.
The plainclothed officer had allegedly been sent to assess the damage caused by the riders during the protest.
While speaking to Citizen, the victim's mother eulogised her son as a hardworking young man who was wrongfully murdered.
"Are police meant to protect people or kill them? I do not know why the officer killed my son, I want justice to be done," she pleaded.
The body of the lynched officer was later taken to the Cheranganyi Hospital Morgue in Transzoia County.
[caption caption="Boda boda operators during a past protest"]
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