Protests as police kill deaf boy in Eastlands

Residents of Dandora estate held a protest over the weekend after a boy was shot dead in a robbery incident.

Locals claimed the slain boy was 16 years old and deaf. They blocked roads and hurled stones as the officers tried to pick up the body.

The protesters said the boy was killed near the local dump site. Witnesses said the boy was shot as police, who were pursuing suspected thugs, shouted at a group of boys to get out of the way.

“He did not hear the shouts because he was deaf. Police shot him twice, killing him,” said a witness. Nairobi police boss Japheth Koome said the boy was part of a gang that had attacked and robbed a woman of her mobile phone and cash.

“She raised the alarm, alerting police who chased the boys into the dump site area where one of them, who was armed with a pistol, was killed,” said Mr Koome, adding that they were investigating claims that he was deaf.

Koome said after the shooting, a gang that operates in the dump site area picked up the body and held it, declining to release it as they engaged the police in running battles. Police later picked the body. The protesters insisted the boy was innocent and called for an investigation to unravel the truth.

And two suspected thugs were shot dead in two separate incidents in Nairobi and weapons found on them. The first one was killed in Embakasi where he and his accomplices had allegedly been mugging and robbing pedestrians.

Koome said another suspect was shot dead in Kibera slums in a botched robbery incident. The latest killings increase the number of suspects so far killed in the city in the past few weeks. Incidents of armed robberies are on the rise. Crime statistics released last week show crime increased last year as compared to 2015. There were 76,986 crimes reported in 2015, an increase of 6.2 per cent.