Kisii police have initiated an investigation into the Saturday machete attack in the town’s Central Business District as pro-Azimio and pro-UDA youths battled.
At least ten people were injured by machetes in the Saturday event and were sent to Kisii Teaching and Referral Hospital.
Kisii Governor Simba Arati said, when speaking at the hospital where the youths are still being treated, that security forces were hesitant to defuse tensions between the competing parties.
“ It is unfortunate that people who are breadwinners are now lying in bed here in the hospital, under the ful glare of police officers who were supposed to keep law and order.”
Arati blamed Interior Ministry Secretary Kithure Kindiki for failing to keep the violence in Kisii under control.
“I want to plead with Kindiki… you have won the elections, we must reconcile the society. You cant be fighting people in banditry when you are mushrooming criminals around town protected by police officers,” he said.
The governor threatened to employ additional means to subdue what he described a developing gang used by rival politicians to cause havoc in an attempt to depose him.
Prior to the ugly clash, a group of boda boda operators led by Fred Nunda, “a boda boda leader,” conducted demonstrations in Kisii town to oppose the Azimio Rally, which was held on Friday at Kisii’s Gusii Stadium.
