Police officers at Ematiha police station in Navakholo constituency, Kakamega county, were forced to scamper for safety after they were overpowered by a section of angry residents who invaded the station searching for an officer believed to have stolen a car battery belonging to a bishop.
The officer identified as Kilwa is said to have damaged Archbishop Ernest Kitayi’s car with assistance from two residents.
Kitayi had parked his car by the roadside to attend a funeral after it developed a mechanical problem, and after the funeral, he found his car vandalised and its battery missing.
When he asked the police officer, he (the cop) responded rudely and aggressively and argued that the man of cloth had parked the car on the wrong side of the road.
“I had come out of the funeral and decided to look for a mechanic but when I passed by my car I found a police officer around the car which was badly vandalized and the battery was missing. Upon inquiring where my car battery was, he dismissed me and I retracted to avoid unnecessary conflict,” Kitayi stated.
Out of frustration, the bishop sought assistance from the local residents who stormed the station demanding answers from the officer.
“The residents who were coming from the funeral sensed something was amiss, they approached me and I told them of what was going on when things got out of hand when I confronted the police officer,” he added.
The agitated residents insisted that the officer had stolen the missing battery and claimed that the officers from the station had made it a norm to frustrate and steal from them.
Upon interrogation at the station, the locals discovered that the officer had indeed stolen the battery and handed it over to his accomplices who hid it in one of the pool stations.
The officer was staring at possible death after the irate locals who had ganged up against him were ready to give him a thorough beating. He was rescued by his counterparts after they called for reinforcement from the Kakamega Central police station.
“The two locals have been posing as a mechanic while stealing from residents and the police officer has been frustrating us so much that when we asked him why he had decided to vandalise the bishop’s car and remove the battery he was violent and the angry residents decided to bay for his blood before reinforcement officers came to rescue him,” the bishop stated.
“Things became worse when residents demanded the police to reveal where the battery was and returned it and it was revealed that it was at one of the local houses. Things got out of hand before other police came in to calm the residents and contain the situation,” he added.
The locals have called for the transfer of the officer with immediate effect as they affirm that they will not allow the officers to steal from the public.
