Police officers in Kolobeyei Settlement Scheme in Turkana County opened fire at a crowd that was protesting after the motorcade of a governor from the neighbouring country of South Sudan allegedly knocked down a child, inflicting injuries.
A video clip that surfaced online on the evening of Saturday, October 2, showed the crowd protesting outside police residences near the border of Kenya and South Sudan.
It was alleged that a convoy belonging to the Governor for Eastern Equatorial State of South Sudan, Louis Lobong Lojore, had knocked down the child in the area leading to the protests.
The protests were staged outside the police station.
Gunshot could be heard in the 1:20-minute clip with police lobbying teargas canisters to disperse the crowd. Protester can also be seen scampering to safety.
The Kalobeyei Settlement Scheme is home to over 100,000 families, majority being refugees from South Sudan, Ethiopia and Western Uganda.
The settlement scheme was established to cater for the high number of refugees trickling into the country from Juba, a country that has endured repeated civil uprising.
This is the second time the South Sudan Governor's convoy had been involved in accident in a span of just one year.
In March 2021, the governor narrowly survived an incident where youth from his area laid a trap and ambushed his convoy.
The governor was in the company of his team from which one of his bodyguard and a wife to the Division's Commander lost their lives.
Two other people who were part of the team were seriously injured.
The ambush took place after the governor visited Camp 15 following a night attack that left 17 people dead, four injured. Several houses were also torched in the incident.
"The government mission was a peace mission to talk to the youth of Buya to allow the highway to be opened so that vehicles can move freely as well as to cool the situation down.
"After addressing the youth, the meeting went very well and when they were now on their vehicles to go to Kapoeta to also talk to the Toposa about the same mission, the governor's convoy was attacked by Buya youth," stated Eastern Equatoria State information minister Martin Oting Cyprian.
Below is the video:
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