Tension was very high in Kisii town on Tuesday as motorcycle operators demonstrated against being relocated from the central business area.
The county has a programme of changing the operators’ working areas to decongest the CBD.
Bodaboda operators at the Mashauri junction and those at the Kisii, Kisumu, Migori junction had their part of the day engaging the county askaris and other law enforcers from the national government in running battles barricading the roads making them inaccessible.
Police had to use teargas to disperse the demonstrators where several arrests were made. Motorcycles left behind by the operators were confiscated.
“It is unfair for the county to ambush and harass the bodaboda operators who have been key to economic growth of this county,” said Bernard Nyamwaro, a human rights activist. This is before he was manhandled into a waiting AP land cruiser by the county askaris accusing him of inciting the public.
The county administration chief officer Patrick Lumumba regretted the askaris acts terming them as inhumane.
He added that the county had earlier engaged the motorcycle operators in a sensitisation period.
“We had formed a task force to address this issue amicably. Some are however taking advantage to distort the process politically environment which is not the case,” stated Lumumba.