A house at Kaloleni estate in Kisumu on fire. [Photo/Roberto Munyela]
Assets of unknown value were destroyed after a group of furious boda boda operators descended on houses at Kaloleni estate in Kisumu to smoke out criminals.
The boda boda operators broke into more than 20 houses while setting others ablaze during the illicit operation.
The incident left scores of area residents who were caught unawares homeless.
According to Vincent Otieno, a resident, trouble started when one inhabitant of the estate was dropped Saturday night and asked to pay Sh100 instead of the usual Sh50, igniting a fight.
Other Boda boda riders, Otieno said, united in the battle, but then were overwhelmed. Three motorbikes were burned during the brawl.
Otieno said they later regrouped and came in numbers in search of those who burned their motorcycles.
“They stormed into houses and roughed up women asserting that they were sheltering criminals,” narrated Otieno.
The operators’ unleashed horror on area tenants who were not privy to the episode that snowballed to the attack.
Firefighters from the County Government of Kisumu who were trying to extinguish the blaze also flee the scene after the furry filled youths also descended on them.
Police lobbed tear gas canisters to scatter the raging youths who swore to endure with the task to flush out villains.
The residents made desperate efforts to rescue their items with some blaming the security agency of laxity.
Kisumu County Police Commander Titus Yoma established that 28 houses were torched and property of unidentified value wrecked.
He said the police moved with speed and managed to reinstate calm in the area.
Investigations into the matter, he said, have been launched and the wrongdoers shall be arrested.