Irate members of the public on Friday evening pounced on a 12 year old boy for attempting to set ablaze a slum in Athi River town.
Joseph Kyende received beatings from the mob who reigned on him with several blunt objects; rungus, whips and kicks after he lit his bedding at a house in Sofia Slum within Athi River District.
Neighbors who detected smoke fuming from the house responded quickly by putting the fire which had already spread to the neighboring four houses.
Kyende’s mother was absent when he lit the fire using kerosene. He had closed the door with a padlock and escaped to avoid arrest by the residents.
According to eyewitnesses, neighbors with the assistance of well wishers broke into the house to fight the fire which they successfully put off using water and soil.
The witnesses disclosed that it was after putting out the fire that the agitated neighbors launched a man hunt for the boy whom they found hiding in pit latrine approximately 900 meters within the slum.
The boy was dragged out and was thoroughly beaten by the crowd until near death.
His mother who was back to his house already then said the boy was under influence of bhang due to bad company and peer pressure.
She told the public that taking the boy to the police was like doing no work claiming he had been arrested and taken to Athi River Police Station several times but released without trial.
The mob gave him more beatings, threatening to lynch the boy but later left him with the mother bleeding profusely.