A student at Maziwani Primary school, Kilifi County is nursing a gunshot wound after police officers opened fire on a section of protestors during an eviction exercise that took a turn for the worse.
The protests pitted a section of infuriated youth who tried to take a defiant stance against the police officers.
Violence ensued after the rowdy youth began pelting stones at the security team which prompted the officers to shoot in the air to disperse the rowdy crowd.
It was then that a stray bullet hit the class 6 pupil, wounding his leg. He was rushed to Malindi Sub County Hospital.
According to Malindi Sub County Commissioner Jeff Lekuta, the rowdy youths were to blame for the violence citing that they initiated the assault on the police officers. He also noted that two people from the chaotic protests had been arrested.
Area residents alleged that the police officers were in collusion with an Asian businessman who had planned to evict them out of a controversial parcel of land in Furunzi, Malindi.
This, they claimed, was illegal since the businessman lacked a title deed for the land.
Mercy Wanjira, a resident who lives in the disputed land, was aggrieved by the horrid conditions that they had been subjected to following threats from the businessman to kick them out.
She noted that the businessman had initially set the price for the parcel of land at a rate of KSh200,000 per plot. This figure, she said, rocketed when he hiked the price and demanded Ksh 1 million each.
"The police ought to look out for the interests of the residents and not of the businessman. If he claims he is the owner of the land, let him produce the title deed then," Wanjira spoke to a local media house.
Kenyan police officers are increasingly on the spot over the use of excessive force, especially when dealing with protesters.
Earlier this month, a 3-year-old girl was shot dead by a stray bullet by a police officer who tried to control a rowdy crowd in Nairobi. The police had arrived just in time to stop the crowd from lynching three suspected motorcycle thieves.
Unfortunately, when police officers began opening fire to disperse the crowd, the girl became collateral damage. The police officer and the three suspects were taken into custody.
