A man and his wife were on Monday, August 26, arraigned before a Kisumu court after they attacked government officials who had accompanied census officers.
In the Sunday incident, the man, identified as Richard Ochieng, is said to have bit the fingers of a village elder while his wife, Florence Adeka, attacked the area acting chief with a piece of brick injuring his thigh.
Kanyakwar acting Chief, Maurice Ojwang, revealed that the couple had chased away the enumerators on Saturday night and were never counted, prompting him to accompany them on Sunday alongside police officers.
He further revealed that upon their arrival the woman started wailing and causing a commotion before she called her husband who was away.
When her husband arrived, he also became rowdy and as police attempted to handcuff him, he severely bit the village elder’s fingers.
The two were released on a cash bail of Ksh20,000 or a bond of Ksh30,000 and a similar surety after they denied the charges.
Richard and his wife claimed it would not have been possible for them to have fought off more than 12 people and denied them access into their house.
They also pleaded for leniency saying that they were unemployed and their five children were dependent on them for survival.
Chief Ojwang further added that the family had been difficult to deal with even during polio vaccination exercises as they would prevent health workers from vaccinating their children.
In other incidents, an enumerator is nursing injuries at a Kisumu hospital after she was gang raped in Maseno and another escaped narrowly after she was attacked by villagers in Homabay county on the account that she was not a native of the area.
