Residents of Kericho town and matatu business operators today held demonstrations and barricaded the Kericho-Kisumu-Nakuru highway protesting an incident in which four 14-seater vehicles were allegedly stoned at Awasi on the border of Kisumu-Kericho counties on Monday evening.
The matatu operators claimed the Nissan matatus were pelted with stones by youths believed to be from another community. The town’s residents and businessmen appeared to have wanted to retaliate by blocking the highway.
They demanded that the barricaded roads at the borders of Kisumu-Kericho-Nandi be opened as a matter of urgency lest they continue protesting in Kericho town until the matter is addressed.
Anti-riot police swung into action lobbed tear gas canisters to disperse the people in a bid to restore normalcy. Calm had returned by the time of going to the press.
Members of the Kericho County Assembly later addressed the people and urged for calm saying security officers were addressing the issue. They MCAs were Paul Chirchir, Hezron Ng’etich and William Soi.
The MCAS asked the police to ensure peace prevails at the borders at all times saying it was wrong to disrupt business activities or even loss of lives because of bad politics.
The endless incidents of thuggery and criminality on the Nandi-Kisumu-Kericho border is a result of sheer stupidity and not politics or cattle rustling. Muhoroni is deep inside Kisumu County. How did sugar cane get burned in a purely NASA zone as reported just after the repeat elections? And the leaders on the Kericho side (apart from the moderate Governor Prof Chepkwony several other leaders) are breathing toxic fire. Their commentary consist of blaming one side and make matters worse when they pretend to be the victims when in fact most leaders in the region (both NASA and Jubilee) are psyching their supporters into a needless frenzy. Obviously many youth in the region were too young to have witnessed the horrors of 2007/08 PEV. We need mature leadership in the region, not juvenile chest thumpers who do not seem to be aware that the business end of a weapon, crude or sophisticated, is lethal