Oginga Odinga University Students on Friday burned down a car and destroyed property worth millions of shillings in Bondo town in a riot over ‘skewed’ students’ elections.
For a better part of the night, the students barricaded the Bondo-Usenge road and engaged the police in running battles. They attacked motorist in the town, and busses plying the Usenge-Nairobi were forced to halt operations.
The riot became worse when a group of students destroyed property and looted shops along the university way. They attacked boda boda operators and made away with one motorbike.
This prompted a battle between the students and the boda boda operators who in turn blocked them from proceeding with their riot.
Things took a turn for the worse when some students returned to the campus and set a lecturer’s vehicle ablaze. They did this as police, who has been deployed to quell the rampage, watched.
According to sources, the problem began after a dispute about the Secretary General position in the student union. Students say that the poll took a tribal turn and this flared tempers.
Bondo MP Dr. Gideon Ochanda has condemned the incident saying the students need to be solving their problems internally without causing destruction to people’s property.
Such behavior would damage the cordial working relationship that the institution has had with members of the community, explained Ochanda.
This comes two days after students of Maseno University Main Campus set the Finance and Dean of Students offices on fire.
Reports linked the incident to the upcoming students’ elections but no casualties were reported.
The incident also paralyzed learning in the campus for a better part of Thursday though normalcy returned later.
The University administration called on students and parents to remain calm as police investigated cause of the fire.
Maseno University Public Relations Officer, Jaspher Otieno, has since then said that no one has been arrested in relation to the incident, though investigations underway.
In July this year Moi University, Main Campus had to close down indefinitely following a students’ election that turned violent pitting two rival groups.
Prof. Richard Mibey, Moi University Vice Chancellor, ordered all students to vacate the campus as way of creating peace within the university environ.
Oginga Odinga University becomes the third campus to go rampage over elections after Moi University rioted in July over the same.
