Mombasa County Speaker Aharub Khatri on Sunday night, May 23, was forced to fire several times in the air in order to disperse an angry mob that had nabbed three suspected thieves.
According to area witnesses, the thugs had robbed various school equipment from Citadel Junior primary school, Mombasa County, and were attempting to flee before stumbling upon the locals.
Reports indicate that the Speaker had arrived at his home in Ganjoni, Mombasa only to find a commotion at his neighbourhood as angry locals had seized the thugs and were minutes from dispensing justice. Soon after, he opened fire in the air.
Mombasa Urban OCPD Eliud Monare defended Khatri's actions affirming that his prompt deed saved the lives of the thugs who would have been lynched by the mob.
"He's a licensed civilian. He had to fire in the air to prevent the situation from becoming worse because we feared that those suspects may be killed," Monare stated.
Area police later rushed to the scene and quelled the situation.
Crime in urban areas has been a cause for concern as locals have lamented about the rising rate of robbery cases.
Past reports have shown that the crime, primarily occurs at night- a time when the curfew rules are meant to be enforced by police officers.
This has led a section of the locals alleging that the police officers could be colluding with the thugs in order to raid the properties and steal from them.
According to data from the National Crime Research Centre, robbery cases increased in 2020 by 10.6 percent with Nairobi leading as the most afflicted county with robbery cases accounting for 30 percent.
The other crimes that were ranked highly within the county included mugging, burglary and breaking, possession of narcotic drugs and murder.
