I am scared. I am sensing a pattern. It is two years since 25th June 2024 . What started as a peaceful protest by Gen Z turned into little massacres. I am walking towards my house in Kahawa Wendani. I can smell an eerie smell I have never smelled since I was born. Just outside Magunas supermarket, there is a crowd and I can see people walking in groups outside several closed shops. As I walk towards Cleanshelf supermarket, I hear someone say there have been teargas canisters thrown earlier by security officers from Kahawa Wendani Barracks.
The hooting of bodaboda riders makes the atmosphere scary to walk on. Word spreads that Magunas supermarket has been closed. People start running for safety in all manner of directions and I find myself in an unfamiliar electronics shop. And now there are only two people at the closed shop. The attendant and I. I am so scared. How will I get to my house? The shop attendant tries to calm me , encouraging me to wait a little bit longer for the commotion outside to die down before I can get to safety.
We hear the unending firing of gunshots from where we are hiding. The gunshots sound close. Later on, there is silence and it seems like it is safe to leave. The shop attendant, who was afraid to host more strangers for fear of being robbed, as has been perpetrated by goons during protests, now opens the door a little and peeps, before letting me know it was safe to leave.
I pick my bag and instead of walking, I run for my life. Before crossing the Kiu River bridge, I encounter a small gathering, some hawkers still running their businesses as if nothing has happened. I receive a call from my brother inquiring if I am in the house. I am only 100 meters from home.
I check my phone first thing the next morning, running through various WhatsApp groups, and quickly learn that a child has been shot in Rongai, and there is heavy speculation that there has been a massacre in Githurai, which is barely two kilometers from where I stay. Then it all makes sense. The heavy gunfire from last night!
When I go on X, all the rage is about killings in Githurai.
Later on, I confirm in the press that there had been close to 20 deaths on 25th June 2024. My heart tightens. It does not stop there. In July, cases of abductions become commonplace. I am petrified because no one seems safe in my country. One minute a guy is walking to the shop to buy bread, the next minute he is snatched by an unmarked car, never to be seen again, or not to be seen for a longer time, for the lucky ones. The government is not clear on who is behind the abductions and why there is no help in rescuing the victims.
One year down the line, the nation decides to commemorate the fallen youth fighters but all we feel is our government is failing us. The killings have become a norm. I can see a pattern, it is two days after the June 25th demonstrations of the year 2026, uncouth behaviour emerges. More people have succumbed due to police killings in Nairobi and other parts of the country. It is getting worse because why are the women being raped, gang raped and even attempted to be gang raped while we fighting for the same course of the extra judicial killings in protest and Anti-Finance Bill. Women’s voices matter.
On Monday, 22 June 2026, the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) release a report. Only three out of 62 deaths recorded since the June 2024 protest are being prosecuted. The IPOA Vice Chairperson cites the complexity of the completion of investigations, which requires multiple external bodies such as the National Forensic Laboratory and the Government Chemist for forensic examinations and ballistic analyses, hence the delay.
It is barely two days before the country marks the second anniversary of June 25th.
And I am scared.
