Transport has been paralysed along the Nairobi -Mombasa Highway after demonstrators barricaded it at Mlolongo, Machakos County.
Motorists were forced to avoid the road after the anti-government demos erupted in Mlolongo town on Tuesday.
The rioters who thronged the town in groups blocked the highway at the footbridge near the Olympic filling station within Mlolongo town and lit tyres on it as they protested.
The situation completely paralysed transport in the usually busy highway as the protestors engaged police officers in running battles.
More police officers were deployed on the highway to deter the rioters from vandalising the Nairobi Expressway whose Mlolongo entrance and exit is a few metres from where the road was barricaded.
The rioters were still engaging the officers in running battles by press time.
Police hurled tear gas canisters at the protesters to discuss them.
Businesses within Mlolongo town have since remained closed after those that were operating before the melee erupted hastily shut down for fear of looting and destruction of property by the demonstrators.
Meanwhile in Machakos town, business was still going on as usual by the time we were going to press.
Several shops and businesses were closed down though for fear of being looted and destroyed.
In Athi River, the situation was calm with normalcy by press time.
Learning in both private and public schooling the area hasn't been disrupted by the ongoing demonstrations.
