Business was paralysed in Eldoret on Tuesday following running battles between street families and county enforcement officers.
The cat-and-mouse game began when county askaris tried to disperse the street children, who were protesting over what they called incessant brutality from the officers.
They pushed the enforcement officers back from the central business district (CBD) to the county headquarters.
But many street kids suffered injuries in the encounter.
No go zone
Most of the streets in the town were a no-go zone as street children and hawkers took control before police intervened.
The fracas went on for hours as street families pelted county askaris with bottles and other crude weapons, prompting anti-riot police to use teargas to disperse them.
Anti-riot police officers patrol Eldoret town on Tuesday on October 11, 2022 following running battles between county reinforcement officers and street urchins.
Photo credit: Titus Ominde | Nation Media Group
The street families accused county askaris of frequent attacks at night.
They said the county administration had blocked them from operating in town as hawkers, claiming many of their colleagues had suffered injuries in confrontations with askaris.
“If we go to the CBD to hawk, we are being hunted as hardcore criminals. Today we decided to express our anger so that our President William Ruto knows that county askaris in Eldoret are killing us,” said…