•Officers expended 23 rounds of 7.62 X51 MM blanks, 12 teargas canisters and 15 20/20 rounds fired from the anti-riot guns.
•The alleged employers of the impersonator, a couple, were also arrested and detained at the same police station to help with investigations.
Image: The Star
There was drama after an irate mob attempted to lynch a female impersonator at a police station in Migori county.
The rioters are said to have on Monday afternoon stormed Awendo police station and demanded that officers release the impersonator so that they subject him to mob injustice.
Police were forced to use teargas canisters to disperse the mob during the melee which led to the arrest of seven of the rioters. The incident according to police happened at around 1.40 pm.
The seven who included six men and a woman were locked up at Awendo police station, the same station where they had stormed and caused chaos.
Police said they were arrested for being part of a riotous mob that attempted to lynch a female impersonator at Awendo police station on Monday, November 14.
The incident was reported at the same station under OB NO: 16/14/11/2022 at 1.40pm as ‘arrest of a female impersonator’.
“Officers in Awendo police station today spotted a person passing by the station dressed in a female attire but looking suspiciously masculine. The person was summoned and upon interrogation identified self as Sheila Bichange, a female,” a police report seen by the Star read in part.
Police said upon a cursory examination, the suspect owned up and produced a national identification card with a picture that matched his appearance.
The ID card showed he is Jared Opiyo Nyatumba, a 21 – year old Luo male adult from Homabay County, Ndhiwa subcounty, Kobama location, Kobama sublocation.
“He alleged to be an employee of a Sony Sugar Company worker who also owns a hotel within Awendo Township. He alleges to be harbouring feminine feelings since childhood hence his choice of attire,” read the report.
Police said during the interrogation, word went round Awendo town that the person who had been behind recent spate of serial killings in the area and who was said to sometimes disguise himself as a female had been arrested by officers from Awendo police station.
“This prompted them to come to the station in their hundreds demanding to be allowed to see the suspect. The suspect was shown to them through the report office window but they insisted that he should be handed over to them for lynching,” police said.
Awendo subcounty police commander pleaded with the rioters to leave the station in vain hence forced to read a proclamation and they were forcibly dispersed.
Officers expended 23 rounds of 7.62 X51 MM blanks, 12 teargas canisters and 15 20/20 rounds fired from the anti-riot guns.
The alleged employers of the impersonator, a couple, were also arrested and detained at the same police station to help with investigations.
Police said seventeen motorcycles belonging to the riotous were impounded and kept at the station’s yard.
The main impersonator was whisked from the station and taken to Migori county criminal investigations Officer’s offices for further processing.
No police officer or member of the public was injured during the incident.
Migori county criminal investigations officer has launched investigations into the incident.
An officer told the Star that there was spate of insecurity in Awendo subcounty lately.