Everline Akhala, a mother of four, sighs in pain and waves her hands in dejection. For the last two years, she has been struggling to shrug off an emotional wound that keeps appearing fresh every day at the thought of her two deceased children. 

“If only I could roll back time and take my children somewhere away from Nyalenda in Kisumu County, maybe they could still be alive today,” she says, tears rolling down her cheeks. 

Akhala is among several parents in Nyanza who are still grieving from the loss of their kin at the hands of rogue police officers quelling protests. She is also among a group that is hopeful of one day finding justice for their slain kin. 

Her pain is still fresh, and the planned Gen Z anniversary reawakens untold suffering for the elderly woman. Just like the hordes of Gen Zs who were brutally killed in their prime, Akhala’s two sons were in their early 20s- Brian Akhala was 22 while William Akhala was 24- when they were murdered by police during protests organised by the opposition in 2023. 

Even as most people focus on Gen Z protesters, her story has all the markings of pain and suffering at the hands of rogue police officers targeting young people. 

“I keep asking myself why the government must always target young people,” she wonders out loud. 

Last year, as Gen Zs staged protests across the country to push back against the Finance Bill, Akhala says the pain of losing her children a year earlier became fresh once again. 

On the fateful day, the two had been in a one-roomed house she had rented for them to sleep in because her house is small. 

“They did not go for the protests. They were in the house. However, heavily armed police officers stormed the house and started beating them,” she explains amid sobs. 

She says that at first, she did not know what was happening to her children until a neighbour dashed to her house and told her that a contingent of police officers had broken into the house she had rented for her sons. 

“I rushed to the house after the officers had left, and I found them in critical condition. With the help of our neighbours, we managed to take them to a nearby dispensary and later transferred them to the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral hospital, where they were placed in the ICU, “she says.  

With tears in her eyes, she still remembers vividly how the two died hours apart as she watched helplessly. 

“Brian was the first to die then he was followed by William the following day. My heart is still heavy, I have never gotten justice for my children, and the police who did this heinous act have never been arrested,” she says.  

She says she has never been compensated by the government.  

When we visited her at her rented house in Nyalenda, she said she still fears for her remaining children and other young people who have been frequent targets for law enforcement whenever there are protests. 

She says, one of her remaining children, who is in Form 3, is still traumatised to date, and that has really affected her performance in school. 

According to a post-mortem report, William was allegedly assaulted by police officers in the Western area of Nyalenda A within Kisumu East sub-county.  

Bonface Ogutu, a human rights defender in Kisumu, working with Kisumu Peace and Justice Centre, recalls how he was targeted and assaulted by police officers. 

On June 24, 2024, a day before the bloody June 25 protests, their offices were targeted and broken into by unknown people believed to be police officers. Armed police officers shot him with rubber bullets while protesting against the government. 

“The police car stopped ahead of me, and the officer who was sitting in the passenger seat signalled me to go towards him, and I cooperated, thinking that he wanted to bring a matter to my attention. When I reached the door, the vehicle started moving past me, and I saw an officer aim his gun towards me and shoot me with a rubber bullet on the left side of my chest,” he says.  

After shooting, the police again threw teargas right where he was lying, but he was saved by well-wishers who had a motorbike and ferried him to the hospital with fellow protestors.  

Immediately after he was rescued, he says that the police immediately came and targeted one of the well-wishers who assisted him, arrested him, brutalised him, and detained him. 

Even before he could recover from his wounds, police nabbed him again and took him to three different police stations in Kisumu before he was finally booked at Railways police station. 

Willis Otiende, another victim who was also shot while carrying a copy of the constitution, claims he is unfazed and will continue fighting what he describes as bad governance. 

He claims that despite the assault by police officers during last year’s Gen Z protests, he is yet to find justice. 

“On that fateful day, I was carrying the Constitution, a bottle of water and the Kenyan flag, and we were peaceful indeed, but still, the police arrested me and took away my Constitution copy. They placed me inside their vehicle, started beating me up, stepping on me, and hitting me with the gun,” he says.