Kisumu — Police have opened a probe into the death of two high school students who were among three suspected robbers burnt to death in Kisumu Tuesday on allegations of motorbike theft.

Boda boda operators cornered the three in Kisumu's Manyatta estate and frog-matched them to an open field where a mob descended on them.

The mob accused the suspects of robbing a rider of his motorbike Monday night.

"It is reported that there were six people who accosted a cyclist who was carrying a pillion before they bounced on them," Jackline *, a resident of Manyatta, said.

The suspects, some of whom residents said were positively identified, robbed the cyclist and his pillion of valuables before fleeing the scene as others drove away with the motorbike.

Boda boda operators in the area grouped on Tuesday morning and started a search for the suspected robbers.

"They were first interrogated with a view of locating the missing cycle but they failed to cooperate," Jackline explained.

Locals identified two of the suspects as students at a local secondary school with further reports indicating they were in Form II and III.

Police visited the scene collected the charred remains of the suspected robbers and moved them to the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital mortuary for postmortem examination.

Mob justice, considered an extra-judicial intervention, violates Article 26(3) of the Constitution which forbids intentional deprivation of life, "except to the extent authorised by this Constitution or other written law".