Chuka demos: Police bosses transferred over shooting of boda boda chair
Police unblock the Meru-Nairobi highway on the morning of April 9, 2023. The road was closed the whole night by boda boda operators protesting the killing of their association's boss, Willis Mugambi.
Tharaka-Nithi County Police Commander Donatha Kiplagat and Chuka OCS Francisca Mbithe have been transferred following three days of demonstrations occasioned by the shooting of the County Boda Boda Association chairman Willis Mugambi on Saturday, Eastern Regional police boss Rono Bunei has confirmed.
It all started in Chuka town in Tharaka Nithi on Saturday after a mob barricaded the Meru-Nairobi Highway using stones and a casket containing the body of Daniel Mutembei. The residents of Nkwego village were demanding the arrest of Mutembei's killers.
Mutembei was reportedly murdered last month by five people who are known to the residents. The residents, among them Chuka town boda boda operators, demanded the arrest of the killers.
It was while police dispersed these demonstrators that the association chairperson was shot dead, a Nation reporter who was at the scene said.
Mugambi was shot in the chest at around 7pm, and died at the scene, which sparked nightlong running battles between police and boda boda operators. The body remained at the scene for hours.
The standoff caused a huge traffic jam, with travellers spending the whole night on the road.
On Sunday morning, hundreds of police officers in anti-riot gear unblocked the highway to allow vehicular traffic and protect commuters.
Nation.Africa learnt that police officers were mobilised from Tharaka-Nithi and the neighbouring Meru and Embu counties after receiving tip-offs that the boda boda riders were planning to battle police for the second day.
In a statement shared on his social media pages on Saturday evening, Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki said he had dispatched investigators to investigate the two killings.
