Angry residents lynched three suspected human traffickers on Friday, 6 July, over alleged involvement in child trafficking in Butere sub-county, Kakamega County.

The three were part of a group of nine suspects attacked by the mob.

At Butere sub-county hospital, six human trafficking suspects are recuperating from serious head injuries after the mob descended on them with machetes, believing them to be involved in child trafficking.

Witnesses reported seeing the suspected traffickers in the area, prompting residents to rally together to end what they described as months of agony.

A resident recounted the events leading to the beating and killing, “I prepared my children for school and they left the house at around 6:18 a.m. But when they got outside the gate, they came back running and told me, ‘Mum, the car that steals children is outside.’”

Daniel Mang’ula, another resident, said, “We have been suffering for nearly a month by those people. It has come to a point where we accompany our children to school and must go to pick them up. Today we received a call that they were around and people came out.”

Butere Sub-County Commander Julius Kiptoo confirmed that the victims were travelling in a car torched by residents before the police could arrive. “They were with the car that was torched, and we suspect that it was being used to perpetrate this kidnapping of schoolchildren,” asserted Kiptoo.

Kiptoo added that cases of child trafficking have been rampant in the area in recent months. Authorities say around 6,000 children go missing every year, which translates to 18 children disappearing each day. Parents of the missing young ones are helpless, not knowing when their children will return.

One of the victims, who spoke to the press from his hospital bed, denied the trafficking allegations, stating they were heading to Kampala for a DNA test to enable them to travel abroad.

“They started beating us, jumping on us, they were beating us with machetes, sticks, big ones, sharp knives, everything, stones. And even when the police arrived, there were only first two police, they kept beating us. And when police stopped them, they kept throwing stones at us,” recounted Yusuf Abulraman.

The bodies of the three deceased were transferred to the Kakamega Referral Hospital mortuary.

Authorities are urging calm and promising thorough investigations to bring those responsible for trafficking to justice while ensuring the safety of children in the area.

The incident follows rising cases of child trafficking in the Rift Valley and Western Kenya. Earlier this year, cases of missing children in Eldoret had reached up to 20 children, with suspicions of trafficking.