Two suspected robbers killed, vehicle torched by mob on Kericho-Kisumu highway

Two suspected robbers were lynched and their vehicle burnt to ashes near Kaitui Bridge in Sigowet/Soin Sub-County along the Kericho–Kisumu Highway on Thursday afternoon. Kaitui Location Chief Philip Kemboi confirmed the incident, saying one of the deceased’s accomplices managed to escape into a sugarcane plantation and was being pursued by police officers and members of the public. Kemboi said the suspects were part of a gang that had stolen a bodaboda motorcycle in the Kaitui area two weeks ago and had since been marked by bodaboda operators. He said the operators spotted one of the suspects today in the company of two accomplices, who were riding in a saloon car towards Kapsoit trading centre. The operators mobilised themselves and pursued the suspects, who, upon realising they were being trailed, made a U-turn and sped back towards Kipsitet. The operators alerted their colleagues stationed at Kaitui and Kipsitet to block the highway. Shortly afterwards, the suspects, who were driving at breakneck speed, suffered a tyre burst near Kaitui Bridge. The suspects then leapt out of the vehicle and ran into a nearby sugarcane plantation, but the irate mob, which was in hot pursuit, caught up with two of them and attacked them with crude weapons, killing them on the spot. One suspect, who was believed to be armed with a firearm, shot and injured a bodaboda operator before escaping deeper into the sugarcane plantation. The vehicle used by the suspects was torched and reduced to a shell. Angry members of the public later blocked the Kericho–Kisumu Highway at Kaitui, causing a massive traffic snarl-up stretching in both directions. The incident occurred just a few hours after a 19-year-old man hacked three members of his family before being lynched by a mob at the neighbouring Samutet village in Ainamoi Constituency.