Drama unfolded in Kiandutu on Friday evening after residents engaged police in running battles after a police officer accidentally shot a girl.
Irate youth from Kiandutu slums engaged into chaos with the area administration officers after a young girl was accidentally shot by a police officer on Friday evening while fetching water from a water point in the area.
It is alleged that Thika police officers had arrived in Kiandutu to arrest a scrap metal dealer in one of the sections of the vast slum when he escaped, forcing the police to arrest a his wife and her son.As they were struggling to eject them from the premises, some of the people who were witnessing the incident started pelting the police with stones. Eventually, the police realised that they had been cornered and started firing in the air to scare them away but in vain.
In the confusion, a stray bullet hit the young girl, who is said to have died on the way to Thika Level 5 hospital. The police managed to get out but this time without their suspects.
Some irate youths gathered and marched to the area police post where they threw stones and chanting obscenities to the police who by then did not know what had transpired.The protesters decided to direct their anger to unsuspecting motorists along Garissa Road. They blocked the road near Broadway High School and the General Kago-Garissa roads junction near Bidco Oil Refineries.They lit bonfires on the road and started harassing innocent pedestrians who did not know what was wrong.Thika anti-riot police officers responded immediately by dispersing the protesters from the road and cornered them in the slum premises where they calmed them down.The officers took over three hours to bring operations to normal and calmness has now prevailed in the area since then.Thika OCPD Erastus Muthamia has assured the residents that the police are investigating on the incident and the officer will be prosecuted if found guilty.He urged them to shun from taking aw onto their hands.
The protestors dispersed along the Garissa road.