Angry residents in Kakamega County on Thursday, October 8, reduced a police station to ashes.
Confirming the incident, Western Police Commander Peris Kimani disclosed that Mbururu Police Station was burned down after a disagreement between the police and the locals.
It is believed that the fallout came about after the residents accused a police officer attached to the station of beating up a man for not wearing a mask.
The residents, who were in a crowd of 200 people, are also said to have been angered by treatment of the suspect, Dennis Lusavu, popularly known as Bazenga, who then went missing after the incident.
"If the law requires the police officers to carry out certain duties and the don't observe it (the law) properly and have come to hurt us, who will observe it?" posed one resident to NTV.
The residents also demanded that the location of the police station be converted into a hospital to bridge the health gap in the area.
"We want the station to be made into a hospital and the officers kicked out," another added.
Kimani told the press that the station's OCS was injured in the skirmish and was taken to hospital for treatment.
"When the OCS arrived here, he found a charged crowd of about 300 people. The OCS tried to talk to them, reasoning with them but no one could here his requests.
"They injured the OCS on the head who has been taken to Matunda Sub-county Hospital, treated and discharged," stated the commander.
The incident comes at a time when crime is on the rise in the country owing to increased unemployment caused by Covid-19 pandemic's effect on the economy.
An estimated 5 million people are said to have lost their jobs in the six month's that the pandemic ravaged the country.
