Mob beats and sets ablaze an 18-year-old man in Kenya’s Kirinyaga County for allegedly stealing a mobile phone from a farm owner, an act the victim denied, APA can report on Thursday.
The victim, Jesse Nyaga, 18 is nursing serious burns at the Kerugoya County Referral Hospital after he was doused with petrol and set ablaze by a group of people who accused him of stealing a mobile phone in Kiangai, Kirinyaga County.
Nyaga told visitors at the hospital that he was attacked by a group of miraa chewers and boda boda riders before petrol was poured on him and set on fire, leaving him with severe burns and injuries.
Nyaga denied that he stole the phone, but the farm owner insisted that he took it. They agreed to go to the police station after the mob started baying for his blood.
On reaching Kiangi police station, an officer saw the commotion and the multitude and wanted to know what was happening. Instead of rescuing him, she walked away, leaving him in the hands of his attackers, and that is when they forced him to drink petrol after several stabs before setting his body on fire.
Nyaga was offered a manual job in the farm owner’s coffee plantation where he was supposed to apply manure to the farm. Later, the farm owner claimed Nyaga stole his phone.
According to Nyaga, he was beaten, threatened with knives and forced to drink petrol before his attackers allegedly set him on fire after he failed to produce the phone he was accused of stealing.
Nyaga said the situation escalated when a boda boda chairman he knew arrived with three other people after allegedly being summoned by the man who had hired him.
Unable to produce the phone, Nyaga alleged that he was beaten and taken to an area near Kiangai Police Post, where his attackers told a female police officer that he was a thief.
Nyaga alleged that some of the people involved, whom he knew personally, threatened him with two knives and warned that he would be killed if he did not produce the phone.
MG/as/APA