Lobby groups demand justice in Embu boy shooting

Civil society leaders in Embu are demanding justice in a case where a 16-year-old boy was shot and killed by a stray bullet during a fracas in Embu.

Kevin Macharia was shot in the head after police shot in the air to disperse a rowdy crowd.

It was reported that a local pastor had allegedly been caught pants down with another man’s wife, leading a crowd of curious onlookers to form outside the house where the two were.

The crowd turned rowdy, prompting police who had been called to the scene to fire in the air in an attempt to disperse the crowd. A stray bullet hit young Macharia in the head, killing him on the spot.

The civil society leaders are now asking the inspector general of police to make public the progress made so far in the investigations into the incident, and demanded that those involved in the boy’s death be brought to book.

Last week the High Court sitting in Mombasa sentenced two police officers to seven years in jail each after they were found guilty of manslaughter in the shooting of a 14-year-old schoolgirl, Kwekwe Mwandaza, at Kinango in Kwale County.

In an earlier judgment, Justice Martin Muya had found the duo guilty of misusing their rifles when they shot the girl at her parent’s home during a raid in pursuit of her uncle, George Zani, who was wanted for murder.

Citing the High Court ruling on Kwekwe’s killing, the group now wants a similar pursuit of justice in Macharia’s case.