A 13-year-old boy sustained serious injuries when he was struck by a stray bullet fired by police officers who were fighting Mungiki sect followers at the Makongeni area of Thika District on Friday.
Joseph Muga Kamau is fighting for his life at Thika District Hospital where he was admitted in critical condition.
The bullet hit him on the back of the shoulder as police battled a group of over 50 Mungiki youths who had attempted to forcefully take over a matatu stage.
Thika deputy police boss Musa Yego confirmed the incident and said police were investigating the circumstances under which the boy was shot.
Trouble started at around 10 am on Friday morning when the Mungiki followers attempted to take over the BAT matatu stage along the Thika-Garissa road.
Two police officers who were on patrol intervened and chased away the sect members who fled from the scene.
However, the sect followers regrouped and two hours later a gang of about 50 armed with rungus, pangas and stones raided the stage again and attempted to repel the police officers who were guarding it.
The officers called in reinforcements from the Thika Police Station and an all out confrontation ensued, with the Mungiki group pelting the officers with stones.
The police managed to drive them away and they fled towards the bush at Gachaki Village where they later regrouped and the fighting resumed.
It was then that the officers opened fire, injuring the boy. Six sect members were arrested and locked up.
Yego said he had sent more officers to patrol the troubled estate and stem the tension.
In another incident, police on Friday evening shot and killed two people at Kakuma refugee camp when a group of protesters blocked vehicles ferrying firewood to the camp.
Five police officers and two protesters were seriously injured during the fracas which lasted several hours. Two vehicles belonging to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) were stoned.
Trouble started when more than 500 members of Turkana Environmental Resource Association (Tera) sealed off the main gate to the camp to block the UNHCR vehicles from delivering firewood.
The members, armed with crude weapons and stones, engaged police in running battles after police shot in the air to scare them off.
Police then opened fire, killing one woman and a teenager. Turkana District Officer Nelson Marwa said only one person was killed while several police and civilians were injured.
The Tera who are the single source of firewood to the camp declined to supply the commodity claiming the price was too low. A 10kg bundle of firewood is sold at Sh6 and the group wants it raised to Sh56.
Last week, a meeting between UNHCR and Tera officials to discuss the price of firewood aborted when the local provincial administration failed to turn up.
Police have since arrested the group's chairman, Mr Josephat Lopua, for allegedly inciting the members.
Business at the busy Kakuma town came to a standstill yesterday when Assistant Minister Ekwe Ethuro and Turkana North MP John Munyes led a peaceful demonstration in the town to condemn the killing.
Youths in the area took advantage of the situation to loot food from shops in the town.
The Kakuma-Lokichogio road has been blocked by demonstrators and no vehicle was being allowed to pass.
Ethuro and Munyes accused police of killing innocent people at the expense of the refugees.
The leaders castigated the Government for protecting the interests of the refugees while the locals who are the hosts suffered.