Mob Storms Tinderet Police Station, Injures Officers, Kills Murder Suspect

Police officers in Tinderet Sub County, Nandi County, had a hard time on Thursday after thousands of angry residents stormed a police station in a hunt for a murder suspect who had been detained at Chemase Police station.

The angry residents bearing crude weapons stormed the station, leaving officers who were at the station at the time of the incident with injuries after they tried to repulse them. The irate mob went ahead to burn a police vehicle and loot property after overpowering the police. 

The residents are said to have stormed the police station after the officers arrested a suspect in connection with the brutal murder of a 38-year-old man, whose body was found dismembered.

After overpowering the police, residents managed to pull out the suspect, stoning him to death, and subsequently burning his body. 

”Today at around 1330hrs irate members of the public totalling about 3000 in number stormed Chemase Police Post and overpowered the police who were manning the report office and the premises,” a police report read.

”They maliciously damaged the down part of the station building and burnt down the police vehicle, model Ford ranger GKB127Y. After rescuing the suspect they stoned him to death and burned his dead body,” it added.

According to eyewitnesses at the scene, the residents pleaded with the officers to release the suspect, but the officers, adhering to their duty to uphold the law, declined their requests.

Tinderet Police Commander Johnson Mwariga confirmed that the suspect confessed to having committed the crime and even escorted investigating officers to where he had reportedly hidden the victim’s head and other body parts.

The senior leadership of the National Police Service (NPS) condemned the incident, urging the members of the public to refrain from taking matters into their own hands. 

”Following the attack at the Chemase Police Post, we are appealing to the members of the public to refrain from taking the law in their hands and let the law take its cause once a suspect has been arrested,” NPS Spokesperson Resila Onyango, shared in a statement.

Incidents of irritate members of the public storming police stations have been on the rise in the recent past.

On December 17, last year, residents of Kaptagat in Elgeyo Marakwet stormed Kaptagat Police Station after discovering the remains of slaughtered domestic animals that had been allegedly stolen by some officers at the station.