Fresh allegations have emerged that police aided goons in attacking peaceful protestors during the demonstrations in Nairobi on Tuesday, June 17.
Speaking on Thursday, Nairobi Hawkers Association Secretary General Francis Gachanja claimed that goons armed with batons were deployed to beat protestors while uniformed officers stood by and even aided them.
In a chilling firsthand narration, Gachanja described the buildup to the protest as tense but peaceful until midmorning, when unfamiliar groups of men began arriving in the CBD.
“They were carrying batons and riding on motorbikes, and they were ready to attack any protester,” he said.
According to Gachanja, the groups began chanting anti-protest slogans such as "There shall be no demonstrations" as they streamed into the streets.
Initially mistaken for another set of protestors, their intentions became clear when they began physically assaulting small clusters of demonstrators.
“They were not just walking and chanting. The moment they spotted protesters, they beat them up and chased them with those batons. And no one stopped them, not even the police,” Gachanja narrated.
According to the Hawker Association SG, the police officers not only ignored the violence but actively enabled it.
“We saw uniformed officers walking beside them. At one point, I witnessed police handing over tear gas canisters to these goons,” he revealed.
He revealed that the hired goons looted heavily in commercial areas, even targeting women, while police stayed away or arrived after the damage, a move he suggests openly points to a situation where Kenyans are on their own and cannot rely on police for protection.
His sentiments coincided with those of Amnesty International's Executive Director, Houghton Irungu, who revealed that during Tuesday’s protests, some boda boda riders were allegedly paid to participate. Irungu alleged that the riders received amounts ranging from Ksh200 to Ksh1,000.
“From our observations of the protests on Tuesday, we were being told that the bodaboda riders were paid Ksh1,000, and the pillion passengers were paid anywhere between Ksh200 and Ksh300. There were about 200-300 goons involved; this means that chaos was funded to a tune of about Ksh500,000,” Irungu explained.
On Tuesday, youths took to the streets to protest the death of teacher and social media influencer Albert Ojwang, who died in police custody. The protests were largely peaceful at the outset, with demonstrators marching through Nairobi’s CBD, until chaos erupted and goons disrupted the protests, looting shops and people in the CBD.
