• The base commander and a county askari were stoned and taken to hospital.
• Several riders were arrested and their motorbikes impounded.
Angry boda boda riders on Tuesday stoned police and Kilifi county officers in Malindi as they enforced Covid-19 directives at BP area.
The problem started after traffic police officers, led by base commander George Naibei, began arresting riders for non-compliance on social distancing and one passenger directives.
Two riders resisted arrest and began fighting the officers. One overpowered the base commander and another traffic officer. This encouraged other riders, who pelted the police car with stones as they demanded that the officers leave.
Naibei and a county askari were hit with stones and rushed to hospital where they were treaded and discharged.
Malindi sub-county police commander Vitalis Otieno said the officers were on patrol to enforce the coronavirus regulations when they found the riders crowding the BP area.
The windscreen of a Probox was smashed but the security personnel managed to leave before the situation got out of hand. They later regrouped and intensified the crackdown on the rogue riders.
Several riders were arrested and their motorbikes impounded.
Otieno said in his office: "They (riders) started stoning police and private vehicles. They stoned my officer and the county law enforcement officer who were working as a team."
Malindi boda boda operators have in the past complained of harassment by the traffic police officers.
Two weeks ago, police nationwide seized more than 900 riders while enforcing the dusk-to-dawn curfew. They were later released.
On Monday, an AP officer was interdicted after he brandished a pistol as he solicited for bribes from riders ferrying charcoal in Marafa.
The arrest happened after a video of the officer using the weapon to harass the riders went viral.
The reaction of the riders is a pointer that people are now fed up with police harassment, according to human rights activists.