Why opposition supporters in Kibera are planning funerals for the living

NASA supporters barricades roads during demonstrations on November 28, 2017. [Willis Awandu| Standard]

“We are going out to defend our Constitution and fight for democracy. And as it is, five or six of us might be felled by the police. I do not know if it is my turn today, but I beseech you my friends, when I go down, do not let the ground that has fed on millions of bodies feast on mine in Lang’ata. Send me off with honour. I have a family, I have a home in Kochia, Homa Bay County. Do not let my wife and children whom I am joining this fight for gnaw in pain and eat from the bins where my oppressors throw their leftovers. The only honour I have is a Political Science degree that has never got me a job. My people, send me off with honour’’.

These words by William Ochieng are what Mike Omolo (not his real name) recalls of his first sitting in a demonstrators' funeral and injuries committee at Kamukunji grounds in Kibera on August 12, last year.