A section of reformed youth in Mathare, Nairobi, has decried police harassment that led to the injuries of several eco-warriors in the area during a police operation.
On Friday, they took to the streets protesting the police assault, stressing that they were unfairly targeted while inside their houses despite having left the life of crime and joined the ecological justice network.
In their complaints, they also named Nyumba Kumi leaders as being part of the officials who harassed them while looking for a murder suspect who killed a man walking his three-year-old son to school on Monday.
“At around 2 am to 3 am, we heard banging on the door and we asked who it was. Their voices sounded like village elders but we refused to open the door. They broke the door and barged in asking us to produce the weapons,” one of the victims narrated.
Kenyan Police Vehicle.
Photo
HILARY KIMUYU
“They did not handcuff us and take us to the police station. They just beat us and left us there telling us to go back to sleep. I woke up this morning to go to the hospital and the doctor asked me to obtain a P3 form. Even my brother was beaten.”
The youth added that they understood the urgency of apprehending the suspect and only wanted the right parameters to be used during the operation.
They pointed out the lack of arrest of any of them despite being treated as suspects almost every time such an operation was carried out in the area.
The reformed youth are reportedly involved in lawful activities that not only benefit them but also the environment as well. They include eco-friendly efforts like tree planting and vegetable farming along riparian lands.
“We are environmental commanders. We are protecting our riparian land where the government demolished our houses and decided to plant trees,” Elie Otieno, the Miami Florida Youth Group chairperson, said.
A Community Policing Member of the Nyumba Kumi initiative defended the youth but stated that the urgent nature of the investigation called for the officials to be more strict in their operation.
“An operation needs to target the areas where the young people are. And by the way, if the ones injured were bad young men, they would have already fled,” he stated.
Wanjira Wanjiru, the co-founder of Mathare Social Justice Center condemned the act, terming it the “criminalisation of environmental defenders of the ecological justice network.”
The operation followed the murder of a father walking his son to school on Monday morning. The son has since been adopted by former Nairobi Governor Mike Mbuvi Sonko.
A photo collage of Former Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko interacting with newly adopted son, Baby James, on Saturday, January 26, 2025.
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Mike Sonko