Police in Kericho County are searching for the body of a middle-aged man who drowned after plunging into a river at Kambala village while reportedly escaping arrest on Tuesday evening.

Police say the man had attempted to steal a cow belonging to his mother to sell it for his personal use.

When his siblings saw the family cow was missing from the shed, they set out to get it right away.

After a while, they learned that the man had driven the cow in a certain direction. They tracked him down immediately and forced him to return the cow to its rightful owner.

When the assistant chief of the area and the assistant county commissioner happened to walk by while returning the cow, they noticed the man being frog-matched and stopped to find out more.

When the man saw that the assistant chief and the assistant county commissioner had stopped, he thought they were going to arrest him.

He immediately ran to the swollen river and tried to swim to the other side to escape, but the waters overtook him and carried him away.

As a result, the angry residents turned against the chief and attacked him, saying he was responsible for the man's drowning, leaving him with injuries.