Through his Twitter account, the Governor said he would be departing the country on Tuesday for further treatment in South Africa/FILE
NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 9 — Bomet Governor Isaac Ruto has been flown to South Africa for surgery on his nose following an injury he sustained during a melee on Sunday.
According to the Bomet County Government Director of Communications Kiprotich Samoei, a CT-scan done at the Nairobi Hospital showed the governor suffered multiple fractures.
He says the doctors explained that the persistent nose bleeding that the governor has been experiencing since the day of the assault suggests a bone fracture and artery injury that needs to be explored and fixed through surgery.
“A CT-scan done at the Nairobi Hospital showed multiple fractures including the nasal turbinates, nasal bone and right lacrimal bone. According to the doctors, the persistent nose bleeding that the governor has been experiencing since the day of the assault suggests a bone fracture and artery injury that needs to be explored and fixed through surgery to stem it necessitating the governor to travel to South Africa for an operation,” reads the statement.
Ruto, who was flown to Nairobi on Monday for treatment, insisted that the injury was inflicted by a teargas canister lobbed by police officers who were dispersing a crowd at Silibwet Stadium in Bomet.
The Governor documented the chronology of the events on his Twitter account placing blame on security forces for hitting him before they lobbed teargas on his supporters.
He was thereafter seen with a Band-Aid on the right side of his nose.
The Governor said he had responded to calls from his supporters who claimed that they were being harassed during a football tournament also attended by Jubilee leaders at Silibwet stadium.
“Some boda boda riders even made the short journey to where I was worshiping to raise the same complaints,” he said of the incident. “They were complaining of harassment from police at the football event and others had been arrested on suspicion that they were my supporters.”
He said he was attacked when he rushed tried to establish why his supporters were being harassed.
“My objective was to see the police officer in-charge at the event, ask him to release the arrested youths and to stop harassing spectators but the officers I approached did not divulge who was in charge. I asked them nonetheless to release the youths and to stop harassing them and that is when we were attacked,” he later told journalists.
But police have defended their action, insisting that they acted to separate the rival groups which intended to cause chaos but they have not commented on allegations that they roughed up the governor who has been campaigning for his Mashinani Party.
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