Residents of Itumbe in Kisii County have publicly "disowned" Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang'i in what they termed as escalating cases of police officers harassing innocent locals.
The angry locals for the better part of Wednesday engaged police officers in running battles as they demonstrated.
Led by Richard Kombo, the residents claimed that recently, a police officer shot dead a man at a local bar only for the court to release the police killer on bond.
"Police have been harassing us and Matiang'i who is the Interior ministry boss is doing nothing. As residents of Itumbe, we don't recognize Matiang'i even if he hails from the Gusii community," he said.
He said that on Tuesday evening, a speeding matatu which was being chased by police hit a man on the road and the driver fled. Nothing much has happened on this case, he added.
Another local Agnes Bitutu slammed Matiang'i for failing to transfer lazy police officers from the area.
"We have complained several times to Matiang'i to send new police officers to Itumbe but it has been in vain. As from today we can't even attend any function Matiang'i may purport to preside over in Itumbe," she noted.
Kisii county Assistant Police Commander Caleb Matoke urged locals to be calm.
"Residents need to stop disrupting business and transport because their grievances have been heard and will be addressed accordingly," said Matoke.
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