Relatives and friends bury the body of 19-year-old Ibrahim Kamau, at the Kariakor cemetery in Nairobi, Kenya Friday, June 28, 2024.Edith Wanjiku holds onto one of the few photos she’s left with of her teenage son Ibrahim Kamau. His life was cut short by two gunshot wounds to his neck that were sustained during Kenya’s deadly protests on Tuesday in which more than 20 people were killed.
As Wanjiku stood outside the Muslim cemetery in Nairobi’s Kariakor neighborhood, she was overwhelmed by emotions and had to be whisked away to sit down.The mother of four struggled to educate Kamau and his older sister by doing menial work while living in Nairobi’s Biafra slum. Human rights groups have accused police of brutality and killings during the protests. The policing oversight body IPOA on Wednesday released preliminary findings on investigations into police conduct during the protests that showed plainclothes officers shooting at protesters. The body has summoned some officers to record statements.
“The shots were close range, and one may have damaged his kidney while the other hit the spine,” his brother, Edward, told the AP. His deputy president, Rigathi Gachagua, on Wednesday questioned how a government that was a “darling” of the people became so unpopular to cause an assault on parliament.