A woman is nursing serious injuries after she was hit by a stray bullet as police dispersed a mob that wanted to lynch a suspect in Meru.
The suspect was believed to have been part of three men who stabbed to death a policewoman in Igoji on Wednesday and stole her G3 rifle. The officer, attached to the Igoji police station, was guarding Capital Sacco Bank at Igoji market.
Pamela Karimi, a mother of two, is admitted at the Nkubu Mission Hospital. She said she was trying to get a glimpse of what was happening when the mob started stoning the house where the suspect was hiding.
“Police officers then started firing bullets to disperse the people. As I attempted to hide in a nearby house, I was shot and fell. While on the ground, a police officer started yelling at me to stand up or he would shoot me. I pleaded with him because I was already hurt,” she said.
Karimi was carrying a two-year-old child on her back. She was helped into the Imenti Central deputy county commissioner’s vehicle.
Doctors said a wound in her stomach needs to heal first before surgery is done to remove the bullet. Igoji East MCA John Kireria urged police to take responsibility and pay her bills.
“I carried her to the DCC’s vehicle because all the other vehicles had gone. The driver had refused and we argued before he took her to hospital. All her intestines were out. It is true the bullet is lodged in her abdomen. Let them take her to a better hospital or take care of the bills she has incurred,” he said. Karimi’s mother Lillian Kithinji said the Nkubu OCS denied her daughter was shot by police.
