Boniface Mwangi Kariuki, the vendor who was shot during the June 17 protests, has died.
Kariuki, who had been in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at the Kenyatta National Hospital, passed away at 3.15pm on Monday, June 30, almost two weeks after the shooting.
Speaking to the press while announcing the death, the family claimed that although the hospital bill had piled up to over Ksh3.5 million, no government institution had come forward to help clear it, thus seeking help from Kenyans.
"All I can say is that we have a tough task ahead, as getting him out of there (the mortuary) is hard because we do not have money. We are seeking help from Kenyans," Jonah Kariuki, his father, stated.
"I want justice for my son because my son did not do anything wrong. I knew that in the future, he was my only hope. He was my only son, as the rest are daughters.
This development comes just a day after the family confirmed that he had been declared brain dead on Sunday at around midnight.
While announcing the news, the family spokesperson stated that since that meant his brainstem was no longer functioning, the family was waiting for the doctors to declare him clinically dead.
Legal frameworks in the country barred the family from taking Kariuki off life support until his heart stopped beating.
During the June 17 protests, two police officers were caught on camera assaulting the unarmed mask vendor before one shot him at point-blank range in the head.
Kariuki was left bleeding on the ground, where fellow protesters rushed him to the hospital. An emergency surgery hours later at the Kenyatta National Hospital retrieved a bullet from his skull.
His shooting elicited a public uproar from human rights defenders and the public in general, not only because he was unarmed, but also because the protest aimed to call out police brutality.
Speaking during an interview on Monday morning, just hours before Kariuki would succumb to his injuries, former police spokesperson Charles Owino claimed that he had insulted the police officers.
“It was a very simple exchange. If you listen to that clip closely, you will hear the boy abusing the policeman. But as an officer, you must have restraint—and shoot him with a rubber bullet, not a live one. You can see what this has done to the image of the police so far,” Owino stated.
Speaking of the police officer who pulled the trigger, Klinzy Baraza Masinde, Owino claimed that he was a young recruit who had served for less than two years, and he took to heart the insults, leading to the rash reaction.
The two police officers were arrested shortly after the shooting, and on June 19, they were arraigned at the Milimani Law Courts, where the judge granted the prosecution and the defence's wish to hold them for 15 days to allow for further investigations by the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA).
