By MKT Correspondent
One policeman and at least three civilians were seriously injured in Karatina town after Gen-Z demos were hijacked by hired goons.
Bodaboda operators armed themselves in the morning with jembe handles reportedly to forestall the demonstrations by the Gen-Zs.
Unknown to them a message had been passed on to all the would be protestors in town mainly because close to a dozen of their colleagues had been injured last week with some still hospitalised at Karatina level 4 hospital, some undergoing operations with bullets in their bodies.
A clash ensued between the real Gen-Zs and the motorbike operators leading to the latter suffering serious injuries and confessions that they had been hired by one senior politician from the area.
The said politician is said to have hired the goons from as far as Chaka area in Kieni, whom he paid Sh2,000 each.
Businesses were paralysed as thugs engaged police in running battles untill late in the evening, culminating in the town turning into a ghost town with the streets having no pedestrians by 7.40pm last evening.
Sources within the security apparatus intimated to The Mt Kenya Times that authorities were aware of the politician’s mischievous endeavours but he seemed untouchable.
Further, police had been instructed not to use live bullets and had to restrain beyond limits in intense provocation.
On several occasions, police retreated to the station but the rowdy thugs pelted them with stones whereby in one of the occasions, one officer was seriously injured and was rushed to hospital bleeding profusely.
Police had a rough time guarding businesses with goons making several attempts at breaking into one of the supermarkets in the town centre.
Most residents had to make do with alternative sources of their evening meals as the “sokomjinga” on Kibaki Road that provides edibles was unoperational.
Butchering, shops and hotels as well as the open air market that was once famed as the second largest in Africa were all closed.
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