One man seriously injured as Raila’s convoy is stoned in Thika.
NASA presidential flagbearer Raila Amollo Odinga was forced
to cut short a speech on Thursday in Thika Town after angry youths jeered and
pelted his convoy with stones.
Trouble began when a section of youth donned in Jubilee
Party T-Shirts and caps started shouting down the opposition chief as he was
addressing the crowd. Raila’s address was interrupted several times and efforts
to calm the youths down bore no fruit.
When things seemed to get out of hand, the NASA leader’s
security team confronted the youth who immediately retaliated by throwing
stones at them.
In a span of about 5 minutes, all hell broke loose as the
fight between the two groups intensified, forcing the police to lob teargas
canisters to disperse the irate youth.
Politicians Musalia Mudavadi, Esther Passaris, Tom Joseph
Kajwang and Johnstone Muthama who had accompanied Raila in the Kiambu-Murang’a
meet-the-people-tour, were forced to leave the scene and rush to their
vehicles, which were also pelted with stones as they zoomed out.
One person was reported to have been seriously injured in
the melee and was rushed to Thika Level 5 Hospital and later transferred to a Nairobi
hospital.
Residents we spoke to pointed an accusing finger to some
youth whom they claim had been organised to heckle the ODM leader.
“Tension has been high in Thika since morning when these
boys were brought here. They were supplied with Jubilee T-Shirts and caps with
some ladies donning with Jubilee lessos and flags. All through they said that Raila
would not be allowed to talk as Thika was a Jubilee zone,” said one residents.
The same scenario was replicated in Makongeni estate where
the youth who had attempted to disrupt Raila’s speech found it very rough when they
were severely beaten up and repulsed to Madaraka Market and Phases IV and V.
Generally, Raila had a very rough day as reports reaching
that Thika Town Today desk intimate that he was also repulsed in Kenol Murang’a,
Juja Town and Githurai where there are reports that some of the bodyguards were
forced to shoot in the air to save the leaders from irate mobs that had
overwhelmed their security team.
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