Police equipped with automatic weapons and dogs are facing international criticism and ridicule for using tear-gas to break up a peaceful protest largely attended by children.
Teachers and students at the Lang’ata Road Primary School in Nairobi returned from their Christmas holiday break to find the school’s play area surrounded by a newly-constructed wall with a large metal gate. It is alleged the playground is the subject of a land grab by developers backed by a powerful politician.
The children, some of whom were as young as six, turned out with parents and teachers to protest against the seizure. At least ten children were taken to hospital with injuries including tear-gas exposure after over-zealous police lobbed tear-gas canisters, according to a member of Kenya’s parliament.
News of the incident, a video of which the BBC uploaded to its YouTube channel, has brought widespread condemnation on social media. The video shows children helping to push over the wall built to keep them out, after which police in riot gear throw tear-gas canisters to disperse them.
One teenage girl, a student at the school, told an interviewer she couldn’t believe the police would use tear-gas on children. A boy claimed a group of students was chased by police with riot batons.
AFP reported senior police officer Mwangi Kuria told Kenya’s Daily Nation newspaper that the police were deployed to “safeguard the property.”
According to one report, the police officer in charge at the scene has since been suspended. Acting police chief Samuel Arachi told Associated Press that five people were arrested during the incident — three for vandalism and two for incitement. Arachi said that, in a non-violent incident, tear-gas should not have been used.
Speaking during an official visit to New Delhi, opposition leader and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga told Associated Press: “I have learnt with extreme shock and shame that pupils of Lang’ata Road Primary School have been injured after police threw tear-gas canisters at them and other well-wishers who joined them to protest the grabbing of their school playground.”
The former PM, who is Member of Parliament for Lang’ata, added: “This is brutality beyond words and greed beyond description. It is difficult to believe that police can actually deploy against primary school children and lob tear-gas at them to defend a land grabber. This image of a nation determined to steal forcefully from its own children cannot be what we aspire to. It cannot be the legacy we want to bequeath the children.”
Musalia Mudavadi, who served as Deputy PM under Odinga before decamping to contest Kenya’s 2013 general election, called the incident “embarrassing”.
“The heavy handedness is out of this world. Whatever the rights of those who are claiming the land, nothing is more shameful than trampling on innocent displeasure by children. The president must apologise to Kenyan children and those who ordered the violation brought to book,” he said, adding: “In a civilised society, children are treated with kids (sic) gloves even when they offend. To call riot police and tear-gas them to stop them from voicing their legitimate concern portends a dangerous turn in law enforcement.”
Francis Atwoli, General Secretary of the Central Organisation of Trade Unions called the incident characteristic of a “lawless country”; and urged President Uhuru Kenyatta to take stern action to reign-in land-grabbers.
