Around 300 boda boda riders on Friday, October 23, stormed a hospital in Kirinyaga sub-county, dragged out a patient and lynched him.
According to Citizen Digital, the victim was getting treated at the hospital, when the riders stormed and took him out to the Mwea-Embu highway where they killed him.
Nyangati Senior Chief Immaculate Wanjiru stated that the departed had been saved by police officers the previous evening from angry riders who wanted to kill him for allegedly stealing a motorcycle.
He had then been rushed to hospital with serious injuries and was receiving treatment, when he was dragged out of the hospital by the riders.
Before his death, the suspect had reportedly confessed to stealing five motorbikes and had directed the riders to where he had hidden them.
However, when the riders visited the area that the deceased had directed them, they found that they had been duped.
The deceased was burnt beyond recognition and his remains were taken to the Kerugoya Hospital Mortuary.
The law dictates that those found taking part in a mob justice, either as spectators or part of the lynching, will find themselves on the wrong side of the law.
“If several persons combine for an unlawful purpose and one of them in the prosecution of it kills a man, it is murder by all who are present whether they actually aided or abetted or not.
If they participated in the unlawful activity they are considered to have shared a common intention to kill the deceased and they are all guilty notwithstanding that the prosecution failed to prove who struck the fatal blow," a ruling by Justice David Majanja indicated in 2017.
The case came days after a police officer died in an attempt to save a suspected robber from lynching in Burumba location, Busia County.
The officer, together with his colleagues, were shooting in the air to scatter the irked residents, when a bullet struck him.
