Police are investigating the death of two high school students who were among three suspected robbers burnt to death in Kisumu on allegations of motorbike theft.
Boda boda operators cornered the three in Manyatta Estate and frog-marched them to an open field, where a mob descended on them.
“It is reported that six people accosted a cyclist who was carrying some luggage,” some residents of Manyatta said.
The suspects, some of whom residents said were positively identified, reportedly robbed the cyclist of his valuables before fleeing the scene as others rode away on the motorbike.
Boda boda operators in the area grouped and started a search for the suspected robbers.
“They were first interrogated with a view of locating the missing motorcycle but they did not cooperate,” the residents explained.
Locals identified two of the suspects as students of a local secondary school, with further reports indicating they were in Form II and III.
Police officers who visited the scene collected the charred remains and moved them to the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital mortuary for postmortem examination.
Mob justice, considered an extra-judicial intervention, violates Article 26(3) of the Constitution which forbids intentional deprivation of life, “except to the extent authorized by this Constitution or other written law”.
Locals in various parts of Kisumu County have been lynching suspected robbers on the premise that police officers have failed to arrest them.
Others claim suspects are arrested and later released under unclear circumstances.
By Fredrick Odiero
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