{"id":166253,"date":"2026-04-01T23:24:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T23:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/166253\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T23:24:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T23:24:11","slug":"teargas-running-battles-as-youth-protest-over-comedian-sammy-kiokos-unpaid-bill-in-machakos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/166253\/","title":{"rendered":"Teargas, running battles as youth protest over comedian Sammy Kioko’s ‘unpaid-bill’ in Machakos"},"content":{"rendered":"

Youth engage police officers in running battles during protests in Machakos county on April 1, 2026.Business in Machakos county was on Wednesday briefly disrupted following a youth protest\u00a0over comedian Sammy Kioko’s ‘unpaid-bill’ dispute.<\/p>\n

Youth in their tens engaged police officers in running battles during the protests, prompting the cops to use teargas canisters to disperse them and restore normalcy within the town.<\/p>\n

The officers attached to the Machakos police station responded to the demonstrations dubbed ‘Occupy Machakos, Justice for Sammy Kioko’ after the youth involved thronged the streets, chanting slogans as they pushed for payment of the disputed Sh19 million, which Kioko claims the county owes him and his associate.<\/p>\n

The demonstrators attempted to gain entry into the County Government of Machakos headquarters located within Machakos’ township in vain. <\/p>\n

They were repulsed by the officers, most of who donned anti-riot gear. <\/p>\n

They also tried to access the Machakos Level 5 Hospital in vain.<\/p>\n

Machakos County Executive Committee Member for Roads, Transport and Public Works, Nathaniel Nganga, maintained that comedian Kioko wasn’t owed any money by the county as he had supplied nothing.<\/p>\n

The County Government says the uniforms were supplied by another supplier, not by Sammy Kioko personally. <\/p>\n

The county has noted that Kioko isn’t a registered supplier and that any claim must go through the official contractor for the inspectorate uniforms.<\/p>\n

“He is not a supplier in Machakos. Sammy Kioko is not a director; he is not an associate or a relative of the company that supplied the equipment in question. But he has been in the forefront campaigning for payment of this money,” Nganga claimed.<\/p>\n

Nganga said the county government could only engage with the legal entity, which is the owner and director of the said company.<\/p>\n

“The person who has supplied the materials will be paid so that the person can engage with him,” he said.<\/p>\n

The youth, during their protests, continued to push the county administration to effect the disputed payments.<\/p>\n

They have called on Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka to intervene in the stalemate.<\/p>\n

The protests came a day after a similar clash between some youth and the police over the same issue in Machakos Town on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of youth, many Gen Z supporters of comedian Kioko marched on the county offices to claim his disputed Sh19 million payment claim.<\/p>\n

Police deployed tear-gas and used force to disperse the crowd after scuffles broke out, leaving Kioko injured.<\/p>\n

Kioko has since been admitted to the Nairobi West Hospital.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Youth engage police officers in running battles during protests in Machakos county on April 1, 2026.Business in Machakos…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166254,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[80,351,87275,1722,87278,87277,352,98,100,36736,353,87276,101,350,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-166253","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-kenya","8":"tag-kenya","9":"tag-kenya-news","10":"tag-kioko","11":"tag-machakos","12":"tag-ndeti","13":"tag-sh19-million","14":"tag-star","15":"tag-star-news","16":"tag-star-news-kenya","17":"tag-star-newspaper","18":"tag-star-newspaper-kenya","19":"tag-supplier","20":"tag-the-star","21":"tag-the-star-kenya","22":"tag-the-star-newspaper"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@africa\/116332033672838818","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166253\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}