Following a wave of unrest in the US against what has been seen as profiling of people of colour, activists on Tuesday staged a peaceful demonstration outside the US Embassy in Nairobi.
The group is condemning police brutality and extrajudicial killings.
About 20 activists of different races pitched camp at the gates of the US Embassy in Nairobi with placards inscribed with messages condemning violence meted out on people of colour.
But even as they took their march to condemn police brutality on people of colour in the US, another group of Kenyan activists joined the march protesting the killing of a destitute man in Mathare on Monday night.
Police enforcing a dusk-to-dawn curfew allegedly killed a destitute man in Mathare thereby sparking uproar from Kenyans who condemned police brutality in the US and in the country too.
The homeless man worked at Marikiti Market as a porter and was identified as Vaite.
Led by Njeri Wa Migwi, an activist working with Usikimye, the US government should be held liable for police brutality in America and in Kenya because “the US government provides Kenya with over US$8 million in anti-terrorism law enforcement support annually, along with hardware and training.”
Njeri added that “You are first a suspect before anything else and your life doesn’t matter. We have had extrajudicial killings here in Kenya especially in the wake of Covid-19 where we have lost about 10 people including Vaite yesterday.”
A wave of unrest has flown over the US in the last couple of days following the brutal killing of a George Floyd.
A clip circulating on social media shows how his death came about as a result of a police officer slumping on his neck with his knee for a while.
Floyd’s death has triggered a spate of unrest which has caused damages worth millions of dollars.
