Expensive justice(Jason Otieno) “Lynch him! Kill him! He doesn’t deserve to live anymore.” Those were the cries that came from desperate men… and women who had got their prey and were geared up to swing into action. ‘Mob justice’ so they call it, knows nothing like pity at all. Although a bandit needs to be taught a lesson of his life, not in that manner, according to my sober conscience. “What if the man is a mistaken identity?” This was a question that kept lingering in my intertwined mind.

A man in his mid-twenties passed in front of me at a velocity of a bullet from a machine gun. An angry mob was hot on his heels armed to the teeth. The man jumped over a brook, negotiated a corner into a nearby bush. This was the mistake he made. Everyone ran into the bush with an endeavor to search for him as I watched from aloofness.

Suddenly, I heard a shrill cry that cut through the air like a hot table knife through butter. I knew the man had been wedged. I rushed to the scene to have a first hand look. What I saw made me pray for God to have compassion on the poor supposed thief. Men and women rained on him with stones, kicks, jabs, name it. Some spat on him while others jeered at him. Blood shot from all over his body like a faulty tap. His guttural cries could be heard but none paid any attention as the mission wasn’t accomplished.

“Something ought to be done real soon, or else the man will die,” I said to myself loudly. I had to call the police soonest possible for aid delayed is aid denied. No sooner had I taken my new Blackberry phone, than someone hit my hand and the next thing I saw was nobody around me. What a pity! The phone had no doubt gone. Before I could yell for help, I saw something that made my heart skip a beat if not two and my eyes almost popped out of their sockets. A man lifted a building block up high and landed it unswervingly on the suspect’s head crushing it into pieces.
I stood aghast with my mouth wide agape with astonishment. The world can sometimes be cruel. I bowed down my head with fright and agony when I saw the man wincing in serious pain and anguish as he prepared to breathe his last.

The police arrived though a bit late. They fired gunshots in air perhaps on distressed attempts to scare away the crowd. When they finally reached the predestined man, he was already in his death bed. They tried to administer some first aid but the man finally succumbed to death. I watched him breathe his last. I left there fully saddened and disgraced. The police tried to collect any relevant account of the events, but all were reluctant to give out. A couple of the men found at the scene were frog marched to the nearby police station to record a statement.

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