Shabaab suspect rescued from lynch mob in Busia

BUSIA police were last night forced to fire shots in the air to scare away a mob that wanted to lynch a man suspected to be a member of al shabaab. The man, Yahya Khalif Hassan, a Somali national, was on his way to an undisclosed destination from Uganda. Community policing committee chairman Benedict Ojiambo said Hassan was sneaking into Kenya from Uganda on a motorbike through an illegal entry point at Bwamani village at around 11.30 pm.

The vigilante group spotted him and alerted the police at a nearby AP camp. “The vigilante group raised an alarm that attracted villagers who rushed to the scene and attacked the man,” said Ojiambo. One of the vigilante group members sustained serious to the leg from a stray bullet. The injured vigilante, Kizito Barasa Wanyama was rushed to Busia District Hospital for treatment. “I fail to understand as to why the officer had decided to turn his gun on me yet we were together and they knew us well,” said Wanyama.

A resident, Gilbert Egesa Oganga, said the residents of Bwamani have been subjected to frequent attacks by armed thugs for the past two months despite the presence of an AP camp in the area. “The criminals have been roaming the village at night engaging in rape and theft of household goods especially electronic items,” said Oganga.

He added that some security officers are suspected to collude with the criminals. The residents vowed to take the law into their hands and lynch any suspected criminal gang should they dare attack the villagers again saying the law enforcers have failed to deal with the issue effectively.