One Killed In Protests Over Demolition Of Property In Kahawa West

NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 25- At least one person was Tuesday morning shot dead as a section of residents of Kahawa West in Nairobi protested the demolition of their property.

Police said the protesters had blocked roads in the area inconveniencing many as some took advantage of the situation to embark on a looting spree.

Police say they resulted to using force in an attempt to disperse the protesters who had turned violent.

“Police are not the ones demolishing buildings, that is the works of the Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS), we were only here to supervise but you can see all these are illegal structures,” Said Kasarani sub county police commander who further said, “Now that they are being evicted they want to fight police. There is a tendency of hooligans, to dare authorities, to dare police, we are dispersing them then they attack police, they attacked us with stones, are we surely going to allow that?,” he posed.

Property of unknown value was destroyed as authorities cleared structures in the area for expansion of the road network.

Those affected claimed they had not been notified of the planned demolition as they counted losses.

An additional contingent of security officers from the General Service Unit (GSU) and general duty officers from Kasarani were deployed to the area in a bid to restore normalcy.

The protests continued to escalate even further in the early hours of the morning with residents demanding justice after accusing police of killing an unarmed man who is a know Tuktuk operator in the area.

“No one came here to shoot anybody, our main purpose was to disperse, if anyone was shot by a stray bullet that must have been a stray bullet, no one aimed at anyone, we came there to disperse, but if you attack the police, do you expect us to run away and let crooks frustrate other citizens,” said Manzo.

Meanwhile the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) has launched investigations into the death of the said Tuktuk operator.

In a statement, IPOA chairperson Anne Makori said the investigations will seek to establish whether the death falls within the Authority’s mandate of holding police accountable for their actions.

“The investigations will also seek to establish whether the deceased succumbed to injuries allegedly caused by police officers enforcing curfew orders. Further the authority has dispatched a monitoring team to observe how the police conduct the management of the demonstrations, ” said Makori.