Kitale National Polytechnic students protest one of them being knocked down to death by a motorbike [Photo-Courtesy]
The Kitale National Polytechnic students disrupted business activities in Kitale town after launching a destructive protest following the death of one of their own who died after he was knocked down by a speeding motorbike on Sunday evening at the institution.
The First Year student pursuing General Agriculture, identified as Eddy Ptenda, is said to have been going for a morning lecture before he was hit and died on the spot.
The students, who came out in their thousands, engaged bodaboda riders in a running battle before they overpowered them and got access to the Kitale County Referral Hospital morgue, collected the body of their fallen comrade, and paraded it along the Kitale-Lodwar highway.
Before that, the students had cleared all bodaboda riders from the town’s CBD with stones and rungus.
The agitated learners lamented the increased recklessness of bodaboda riders, especially on the Kitale-Saboti road, and called on the traffic officers to enforce rules on the highways to prevent such incidents from recurring.
Tax operators within the town had to run for their safety as their cars were not spared by stones including other innocent businessmen and women in the streets of Kitale.
Thieves took advantage of the situation and stole from shops and street hawkers.
The anti-riot police officers intervened with teargas to disperse students and bodaboda riders who were ready to engage in fighting. During the demonstration, some students and motorbike operators were injured.
Mike Musungu is a reporter at Radio Simba in Bungoma and a correspondent of Trans Nzoia County for the Western Kenya Times.
Boda bodas need to style up