|
Gang targets buses, injure
passengers
Published on January 28, 2008, 12:00 am
By James Ratemo and Moses Njagih
Transport on the Nairobi-Naivasha highway was interrupted by
violence.
Public service vehicles bound for western Kenya had to change
route. Officials of Akamba and Easy Coach companies said they
avoided the Nakuru route and Nyanza and Western-bound buses took
the Nairobi-Narok route.
Gangs intercepting vehicles on the Nakuru-Naivasha highway flushed
out passengers from certain communities and beat them.
An Easy Coach bus was intercepted at Naivasha and some passengers
were attacked. A teacher at 220 Secondary School in Molo, Mr
Dominic Otieno, was seriously injured with a machete when a matatu
he was travelling in was intercepted.
Speaking to The Standard, Otieno said the gang stopped the vehicle
at Naivasha and ordered passengers to produce their identification
cards.
"I told them my ID was in the bag, but they demanded to know my
name. When I told them I am Otieno, they angrily plucked me out
and descended on me with machetes and rungus. The matatu sped off
when the gang threatened to burn it for carrying an enemy," Otieno
said.
He added: "But a Good Samaritan intervened and said I was Kamba.
That’s when the gang spared me. A matatu from Nakuru brought me to
Nairobi’s Nyamakima stage where I met a journalist who organised
how I would get to hospital."
The driver of the matatu, who did not want to be named, said he
was threatened by the gang for carrying ‘enemies’.
Meanwhile, three people were seriously injured as violence that
has hit Rift Valley Province spilled into Central Province.
Youths in Nyahururu town took to the streets yesterday and
harassed members of certain communities. They looted and destroyed
property owned by businessmen perceived to be ODM supporters.
Police came to the rescue of the three people who were being
attacked by the youth and rushed them to the Nyahururu District
Hospital, where they were admitted.
The youth accused them of being members of a community behind the
killings in the Rift Valley.
Operations in the town were paralysed as the youth protested
against the killing and displacement of members of their community
in Rift Valley.
|
