{"id":25635,"date":"2016-05-28T03:49:24","date_gmt":"2016-05-28T03:49:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/prison-warders-pursuing-inmate-shoot-schoolgirl\/"},"modified":"2016-05-28T03:49:20","modified_gmt":"2016-05-28T03:49:20","slug":"prison-warders-pursuing-inmate-shoot-schoolgirl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/prison-warders-pursuing-inmate-shoot-schoolgirl\/","title":{"rendered":"Prison warders pursuing inmate shoot schoolgirl in the head in Migori"},"content":{"rendered":"

{The bullet fired when officers were pursuing a fleeing inmate is said to have taken out one of the student\u2019s eyes.}<\/p>\n

Prison warders pursuing a fleeing inmate in Migori town on Friday accidentally shot and critically injured a secondary school student, sparking protests from residents.<\/p>\n

The stray bullet, from a warder\u2019s G3 assault rifle, hit the Form Two student from Ulanda High School in the head while she was watching the Lake Region handball games at Migori Boys Secondary School.<\/p>\n

The inmate had strayed into the school compound, with the warders hot on his pursuit.<\/p>\n

The bullet, according to medics at St Joseph\u2019s Ombo Catholic Hospital, where she was rushed, taken out one of the student\u2019s eyes.<\/p>\n

Witnesses told the Nation that scores of other students who were watching the games suffered from shock when the warders fired more than 10 shots.<\/p>\n

{{TRIGGER HAPPY}}<\/p>\n

The incident sparked protests from residents, who have now demanded a complete overhaul of the region\u2019s prisons department, accusing warders of being trigger-happy.<\/p>\n

They marched to the county police headquarters, where they were addressed by the county Commander David Kirui.<\/p>\n

The shooting incident disrupted the ball games when students joined residents in the protests.<\/p>\n

Mr Kirui said the concerned officers would be arrested and prosecuted in court.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe prison warders have become a serious let-down \u2026 why fire bullets into students when chasing a prisoner?\u201d he posed.<\/p>\n

He went on: \u201cWe have already launched high\u2013level investigations into the conduct of prison warders working here. Am particularly disappointed by their conduct.\u201d<\/p>\n

Valentine Ogongo, one of the ODM activists who led the residents to the police headquarters, demanded that action be taken against the warders involved in the shootings.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not going to tolerate them anymore; they must leave,\u201d said Mr Ogongo.<\/p>\n

After shooting the girl, the warders then engaged the protesting students and teachers in running battles as they fired more shots in the air.<\/p>\n

They later rearrested the naked prisoner and took him back into custody.<\/p>\n

Ombo Hospital was filled with residents seeking to know the fate of the girl, but the hospital authorities denied them entry into the theatre room.<\/p>\n

Some girls broke down in tears, forcing some hospital workers to comfort them.<\/p>\n

The girl has now been referred to Kisii Level Five Hospital for specialized treatment.<\/p>\n

{{SHOT PROTESTERS}}<\/p>\n

The incident comes barely four days after warders shot five protesters during anti-IEBC demos on Monday.<\/p>\n

Police say the victims, all boda boda operators, had attempted to block a prison lorry that was ferrying inmates to court.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was at this juncture that prison officers pulled out their guns and fired at the victims, some of whom were behaving in a manner likely to suggest that the wanted to free the prisoners,\u201d said Mr Kirui on Monday.<\/p>\n

There lorry had some 50 prisoners on board.<\/p>\n

The men were shot at the junction leading to the county headquarters, off the Migori-Kisii highway.<\/p>\n

The shooting sparked fresh protests in the town. Demonstrators engaged the police in running battles in the streets of the border town.<\/p>\n

The riders, however, disputed the police version of the story.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe victims were standing next to their motorbikes several metres away from the lorry. None of them attempted to obstruct the vehicle. They were only chanting anti-IEBC slogans,\u201d said Tom Ogola, an eyewitness.<\/p>\n

\"Protesting<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{The bullet fired when officers were pursuing a fleeing inmate is said to have taken out one of the student\u2019s eyes.} Prison warders pursuing a fleeing inmate in Migori town on Friday accidentally shot and critically injured a secondary school student, sparking protests from residents. The stray bullet, from a warder\u2019s G3 assault rifle, hit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[99],"byline":[2461],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-25635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-greatlakesnews","byline-daily-nation"],"bylines":[{"id":2461,"name":"Daily Nation","slug":"daily-nation","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2461,"name":"Daily Nation","slug":"daily-nation","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25635\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25635"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=25635"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=25635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}