BY WILBERFORCE WECHALE
Kakamega North Police commander Paul Mwenda has warned students against engaging in public protest and instead address their grievances through the school management.
The commander said this after students of Shamberere Technical Training Institute (STTI) joined boda boda riders to demonstrate against the poor state of the road from Kambi to West Kenya sugar factory alleging that it has claimed many lives.
He warned that it was illegal for them to gang up with boda boda riders and go to rampage even without the knowledge of the college administration, thus endangering their lives and education as they risk being arrested as many of them hurl stones at police officers.
“I want to plead with these students to stick to their core priority which is studying and not being coerced by outsiders to stage demos that cause public unrest and they should remember that when they are arrested, their fingerprints are taken and filed, hence they will never be employed after completion of their studies, so they should exercise a lot of restraint for their own good,” he said.
“What will your parent say when he or she gets news that their son has been shot or injured in a melee where they were demonstrating and engaging police officers in a fierce battle?,” he posed.
“You can be arrested, injured or even shot, depending on the magnitude of resistance together with other rioters, and yet your parents expect you to be in school studying and not on the roads assisting some other people to riot,” he said.
The police commander observed that during the demonstration majority of people engaging police in running battles were the Shamberere students. He said even after other parties, the boda boda operators and West Kenya management, had been addressed, the students were unwilling to return to school and kept on engaging the police until tear gas canisters were fired at them by the officers from the county to disburse them.
Mwenda who struggled for hours to calm the students later managed to address them promising to ensure that the matter was looked into.
The West Kenya communication manager Edwin Wesonga stated that the road in question was under the Kenya Rural Roads Authority (KERRA, adding that the cess levies the factory deducts from farmers’ cane were being remitted at the county revenue offices and despite the miller once in a while doing repairs on the road, it was purely out of goodwill but not their responsibility.
“We have our corporate social responsibilities that includes among others assisting schools within our catchment areas, and educating pupils and students on the dangers of hanging on to trailers and trucks ferrying canes to the factory,” he said.
