A Kitui county fire truck crushed one-time mayor Martha Mwangangi to death on Friday and narrowly missed former Lands CS Charity Ngilu.
The driver was trying to scare away a crowd that threatened to torch a county government vehicle as it passed by Kitui Central police station.
This was during protests by Kalundu market traders against the demolition of their structures.
Witnesses said the engine was headed to Kalundu centre, where the demonstrators earlier barricaded Kitui-Thika road with burning tyres.
Mwangangi and Ngilu went to the area in a show of support for the traders, whose shops were demolished on Thursday night by county government enforcement officers.
The former Cabinet Secretary was pushed aside by her bodyguard when the truck ploughed through the crowd. Many of the protesters also escaped death narrowly.
Witnesses, who said they ran for their lives, accused the driver of murder. The driver sped away as the rowdy crowd threatened to lynch him.
The incident comes amid rumors that one of the traders committed suicide after finding her kiosk reduced into a pile of scrap metal, and her stock destroyed.
Kitui Central MP Makali Mulu was earlier roughed up by the traders at Kalundu market after they mistook him for Governor John Malombe.
Makali’s bodyguard was forced to draw his gun to scare the surging crowd that was baying for his boss’s blood.
He was whisked away and taken to a nearby building where he stayed until the protestors were dispersed.
-the-star.co.ke
