'Better if he was dead': Kenyan mother's search for son year after mass protests
NAIROBI: Susan Wangari has lost count of the morgues, hospitals and police stations she has visited in search of her son, who went missing at the height of Kenya's mass protests last June.
She last saw Emmanuel Mukuria, 24, on the morning of June 25, 2024, the day that thousands of Kenyan youths thronged the streets of Nairobi and stormed parliament in protest at planned tax rises and corruption.
"It would be better if my son were dead; at least I could visit his grave," she told AFP.
Rights groups say at least 60 people were killed during the protests in June and July, and more than 80 abducted by the security forces since then, with dozens still missing.
Mukuria's friends say he was arrested during the protests in the city centre, where he worked as a minibus tout.
"We do not have peace in this house," his mother, 50, told AFP during a visit to her single-room home in the Kasarani slum area.
"I sleep lightly at night in case he comes knocking at my window like he always did," she said.
"Every time we hear that bodies have been found somewhere, we are anxious to know whose they are."
Two men told her they shared a cell with Mukuria, but they are too afraid to speak publicly about their ordeal.
One was only released in February, giving her hope that her son is still alive in captivity.
"They told me they were beaten and questioned about the protests. They were being asked who paid them to participate," Wangari said.
Last month, President William Ruto, in a clear admission that security forces had engaged in kidnappings, said all those abducted during the protests had been "returned to their families".
Rights groups say dozens are still missing and police have shown little progress in investigating the disappearances despite Ruto claiming an "accountability mechanism" was put in place.
Questioned by AFP, the president's office said the police were "handling the brief", while a police spokesman referred AFP back to the president's office.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hindu
21 minutes ago
- The Hindu
March to Gaza: Tunisia activists launch Gaza-bound convoy in 'symbolic act'
Hundreds of people, mainly Tunisians, launched on Monday (June 9, 2025) a land convoy bound for Gaza, seeking to "break the siege" on the Palestinian territory, activists said. Organisers said the nine-bus convoy was not bringing aid into Gaza, but rather aimed at carrying out a "symbolic act" by breaking the blockade on the territory described by the United Nations as "the hungriest place on Earth". The "Soumoud" convoy, meaning "steadfastness" in Arabic, includes doctors and aims to arrive in Rafah, in southern Gaza, "by the end of the week", activist Jawaher Channa told AFP. It is set to pass through Libya and Egypt, although Cairo has yet to provide passage permits, she added. "We are about a thousand people, and we will have more join us along the way," said Channa, spokeswoman of the Tunisian Coordination of Joint Action for Palestine, the group organising the caravan. "Egypt has not yet given us permission to cross its borders, but we will see what happens when we get there," she said. Channa said the convoy was not set to face issues crossing Libya, "whose people have historically supported the Palestinian cause", despite recent deadly clashes in the country that remains divided between two governments. Algerian, Mauretanian, Moroccan and Libyan activists were also among the group, which is set to travel along the Tunisian and Libyan coasts, before continuing on to Rafah through Egypt. After 21 months of war, Israel is facing mounting international pressure to allow more aid into Gaza to alleviate widespread shortages of food and basic supplies. On June 1, the Madleen aid boat, boarded by activists including Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg and European parliament member Franco-Palestinian Rima Hassan, set sail for Gaza from Italy. But on Monday (June 9, 2025) morning Israel intercepted it, preventing it from reaching the Palestinian territory. The UN has warned that the Palestinian territory's entire population is at risk of famine.
Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
Kenya death-in-custody victim was arrested for criticising cop online
Kenya's police chief said Monday that a man who died in custody over the weekend had been arrested for criticising a senior officer. The country was already on edge as it marks a year since massive protests over tax rises and corruption that triggered a police response in which at least 60 were killed. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Albert Ojwang, 31, was found unconscious in a cell in Nairobi's central police station on Saturday and later pronounced dead in hospital. The police said he hit his own head against the wall. "We saw the body yesterday... (it) had a lot of injuries on the hands, the shoulder area, the head was swollen all around the frontal part... and there was a lot of blood oozing from the nose and mouth," Julius Juma, lawyer for Ojwang's family, told reporters and supporters gathered outside the city's morgue on Monday. Police Inspector General Douglas Kanja told reporters that Ojwang was arrested along with several others following a complaint by his deputy, Eliud Kipkoech Lagat. "There was a complaint that had been launched by the (deputy inspector-general) about his name being tarnished," Kanja said. Local media said the group were arrested over posts on social media. Ojwang was arrested in western Kenya but transferred more than 250 kilometres (150 miles) to Nairobi, "without proper orders from the court", the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) said on Monday. The move was evidence of "bad faith and malice in the arrest", the LSK said, adding that it refuted "any proposition that his death was an accident". Amnesty International earlier said Ojwang's death "must be urgently, thoroughly and independently investigated". Kenyan authorities have been accused of a harsh crackdown on critics of the government, with more than 80 illegally detained since the June 2024 protests, according to rights groups -- some just for sharing cartoons or satirical images of President William Ruto. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Former attorney general Justin Muturi, who says his own son was illegally detained by security forces during the protests, said the circumstances surrounding Ojwang's death were "not just suspicious, they are outrageous". "They insult the intelligence of Kenyans and raise very serious questions about the conduct and accountability of our law enforcement agencies," he wrote on X.
NDTV
2 hours ago
- NDTV
What Ukraine's 'Creative' Spider's Web Drone Attack Taught NATO
Ukraine's "creativity", including its massive "Spider's web" drone attack deep inside Russia, holds profound lessons for Western militaries, the top NATO commander overseeing battlefield innovation told AFP. "What the Ukrainians did in Russia was a Trojan horse -- and the trojan horse was thousands of years ago," French Admiral Pierre Vandier, NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, said in an interview. "Today, we see this kind of tactic being reinvented by technical and industrial creativity." Vandier said the operation showed how crucial innovation and adaptation were for victory, as modern warfare changes at lightning speed. "It was a real coup." "We are entering a dynamic era where armies must rely on both major planning but also adaptive planning," the navy commander said. "We will witness continuous innovation where, week by week, month by month or year by year, we will be able to invent things we hadn't anticipated." 'Must act quickly' Faced with the Russian threat, NATO this week adopted new objectives for its defense capabilities to ensure it will be able to repel Moscow. But Western intelligence agencies have warned that the Kremlin is reconstituting its forces at a pace far outstripping NATO and could be ready to attack the alliance in as little as four years. "Time is truly a crucial parameter. We must act quickly," Vandier said. The admiral, who previously commanded France's flagship Charles De Gaulle aircraft carrier, said NATO needed to amass the forces to dissuade any adversary from trying an attack. "When you say 'I'm defending myself', you have the weapons to defend. When you say you deter, you have the weapons to deter," he said. "That's what should prevent war -- making the adversary think: "Tomorrow morning, I won't win." NATO countries under pressure from US President Donald Trump are expected to agree a major increase in their defense spending target at a summit in The Hague this month. That should see a dramatic surge in spending on military hardware. But if cheap Ukrainian drones can inflict billions of dollars in damage on Russian bombers, is it still worth investing in vastly expensive systems? "No-one in the military sphere will tell you that we can do without what we'll call traditional equipment," Vandier said. "However, we are certain we need new equipment to complement it." Officials say that over 70 percent of battlefield casualties in Ukraine are caused by drones. But while drones are indispensable in modern warfare, they are not omnipotent. "Today, you won't cross the Atlantic with a 10-meter-long (33-foot-long) drone. You won't easily locate submarines with such tools," Vandier said. "If they accompany your large platforms, you'll be able to achieve much better results at much lower costs." Integrating new technologies The admiral, who works out of NATO's US base in Norfolk, Virginia, said the major challenge was "integrating new technologies and new combat methods, based on what we've witnessed in Ukraine". NATO and Ukraine have established a centre in Poland designed to help the alliance learn lessons from Russia's invasion of its neighbour. Artificial Intelligence and robotics are also increasingly having an impact and are set to help reshape the battlefield. "All modern armies will have piloted and non-piloted capabilities," Vandier said. "It's much more efficient to deliver ammunition with a ground robot than with a squad of soldiers who could face a 155-millimeter (six-inch) shell." This transformation of military capabilities within the alliance, which NATO aims to expand by at least 30 percent over coming years, will come at a significant cost, estimated in hundreds of billions of euros (dollars). Vandier insisted that while the financial effort was "substantial" it was "fully realistic". "Today, we have all the tools. We have the engineering. We have the expertise. We have the technology. So, we need to get started," he said.
