At least two people were Thursday evening shot and seriously injured as police confronted a mob that wanted to free a suspect in a road rage incident along Thika Road, Nairobi.
The suspect in question was a matatu driver who had been involved in a hit-and-run incident near the Kastemil area, police said.
Two police officers were using a private car on the highway when the driver of the matatu belonging to Superhighway Sacco hit the vehicle.
According to the officers, the matatu damaged their car on the right side before the driver sped off.
This prompted the officers from Kasarani police station who were in civilians to chase it for a short while before blocking the road in effort to arrest the driver.
It was then a crowd surged to the scene and claimed the officers were out to abduct the driver.
The officers said they introduced themselves as officers of the law and victims of a hit and run but the mob became rowdy threatening to stone them and burn their car.
In effort to scare the mob, one of the officers fired four rounds of ammunition to the air using his pistol.
It was then that two passengers in the matatu were shot and wounded.
They were identified as Peter Macharia, 62 who was hit on his left thigh and Douglas Maina Wangui, 42 who was hit on the left foot.
The two were rushed to St. Francis Hospital in stable condition as the mob scampered for their safety.
The bus was removed from the scene before being processed, while the other was taken to Zimmerman police post pending further action, police said.
Police say there is a growing trend of civil disobedience and obstruction to justice by mobs.
Such incidents happened in Embu and Nakuru amid fears there will be more such in the coming days.
In most cases, the mobs cite abduction as the reason they obstruct police from doing their work.
Police warn such cases are criminal and punishable.
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