A form three student was Sunday lynched in a botched robbery incident in the Kariobangi area, Nairobi.
The student is said to have been in the company of two others who were snatching valuables from pedestrians when an alarm was raised.
Police and witnesses say the other two managed to escape on foot while the student was cornered and stoned to death.
It was after he had died and police arrived at the scene when locals identified him as a student at a local school.
This prompted a standoff between police and some locals who opposed the picking up of the body of the student to the mortuary.
The locals said they wanted to bury the student almost immediately as per their religious tradition while police wanted to process the scene.
After a two-hour standoff, police recorded statements from the group’s leaders and allowed them to keep the body ahead of the planned burial.
Starehe police boss Julius Kiragu said mob lynching is criminal and warned those caught over the same will face serious charges.
“If you are in a mob and there is an alarm on a suspect don’t participate in killing him or her but instead call the police,” he said.
Kiragu said there is an alarming trend of lynching suspects in the city, which he termed criminal.
He called on various leaders to conduct civic education on the public in the issue, which he argued is threatening and worrying.
“Innocent people have been framed and killed or injured out of such incidents. It is criminal to participate in mob lynching,” Kiragu said.
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