Police in Masaba South in Kisii on Sunday started hunt for a 'mischievous' landlord who on Friday night assaulted a student tenant and chopped off his fingers.
Sub-County Police boss Samuel Gitau told the Star that his officers were following crucial leads as they upscale the search for the fugitive.
"We are not resting, in any case, we have stepped up the hunt," he said on the phone.
The landlord fled immediately after he had assaulted Newton Nyabuto, a student at Keroka Technical Institute, with over 500 rent arrears.
The student is in his second year in college doing mechanical engineering.
Nyabuto said he had gone for attachment and had only returned Friday evening when the landlord confronted him over the said arrears.
"I had already paid Sh2000 and had promised to settle the rest when I returned. It is when I told him to give me two days to settle it that he dragged me out while armed with a machete and as I struggled to disengage he cut my fingers," Nyabuto told journalists on Sunday.
The Friday incident quickly sparked tension with students vandalising property belonging to the landlord.
Gitau said one house belonging to the suspect was destroyed by the enraged students who were out to avenge the assault on their own.
