Woman reveals how her six children were felled by police bullets, mob

 In a span of three years, Agoro buried four of her children [Photo: Courtesy]

Many families in Nairbi’s Eastlands are living in fear after losing their children to police bullets.

Some of the families have lost up to six children to police shootings.

Take the case of Matilda Agoro and her husband for instance. The couple was blessed with seven children; six boys and one girl.

Like any parent, Matilda had high hopes for each one of them, dreaming that one day, they would grow to become great leaders. That one day, they would relieve her from the shackles of poverty that had defined her life in Nairobi’s Korogocho slums.

But as fate would have it, Agoro was widowed at a young age, and had to raise her seven children alone. Then tragedy struck. First in 2010; her third-born son, then in Form Two, was silenced by a bullet believed to have been fired by cops.

“I received the sad news early in the morning that my son’s lifeless body was lying on the road in Dandora. I was devastated. The death of my son led to ill health and I was diagnosed with hypertension. He was a bright boy and the light of our family,” she told The Nairobian.

But before she could come to terms with the loss of her son, seven months later, death knocked on her door again, this time snuffing the life of her first-born son. He too was gunned down.  

“I almost went crazy. Losing two sons in a span of one year is very painful. The death of my third-born son was still fresh in my mind, and so when I was informed that my first born had been shot dead, I felt isolated, lost and targeted,” she says.

 I was devastated [Photo: Courtesy]

In a span of three years, Agoro buried four of her children. The situation took a toll on her and she became a regular visitor at hospitals to manage her hypertension.  

Watching her dreams die one by one was traumatising. “After losing two of my sons, I think people took advantage of the situation and would frame my sons even if they were not involved in robbery. I lost my third son through mob justice. A woman claimed he was in the company of a gang of boys that snatched her purse. They didn’t even give him the chance to explain himself. They just set on him and lynched him to death,” she said.

By mid-last year, she had buried six of her children. Two were lynched by mobs, while were four gunned down by police.

 One was gunned down [Photo: Courtesy]

Surrounded by the daily torment of fear and tension, anytime she hears gunshots, she runs for her remaining child, a daughter she fears might become a target owing to the family’s bad reputation.

“I’m always worried for my daughter and my two grandsons. I take them as my sons and any time I hear gunshots, sad memories of my fallen sons fill my mind. Today, I raise my two grandsons as prisoners though it’s not my wish, but I am trying to protect them from any harm,” Agoro said.

Agoro claims that since she buried her six children, neighbours have distanced themselves from her, and often view her as an outcast.

“No parent wants me to associate with their children. A neighbour called me all sorts of names after I sent her child to the shops. She claimed I was out to cast a spell on her children and make them die just as mine did,” she told The Nairobian.

Agoro added that she had to move houses to avoid stigmatisation from her neighbours who looked down on her.

Nairobi police commandant Joseph ole Tito said he cannot estimate crime prevalence in slum areas as some cases go unreported. 

“In addition, families whose children are involved in crimes never show up after a crime has been committed,” he said. 

 Crime is on the rise [Photo: Courtesy]

According to a study by Security Research and Information Centre, whereas crime cuts across the country geographically, it is more prevalent, severe and acute in peri-urban informal settlement areas that are popularly known as slums.

The study found that theft at (35.37%), was the main type of crime across the four sampled slum areas. In addition, robbery (15.55%), burglary/break-ins (10.67%) and mugging (23.17%) were the other main typologies of crime in slum areas, accounting for combined (84.76%) of crimes committed in slum areas in Kenya.

But Agoro case is not unique. The Nairobian traced Aabidah Mohamed, a woman who once lived in Dandora, but later moved to Kiamaiko and is now residing in Eastleigh after losing three of her children.

Aabidah who is now running her perfume business in Eastleigh claims her misery started after her son was shot dead in Korogocho. After the incident, she moved to Kiamaiko to protect her two remaining sons, but that didn’t deter the police from tracing them and wiping them all out.

She claims the most painful scene that lingers in her mind is the day she witnessed her last born son being shot. The cops followed him to their doorstep and silenced him despite surrendering.

“Hii bolisi ni binadamu haina utu. Haijali uchungu wa mzazi kuona mwanawe akipumua pumzi ya mwisho. Inaua watoto yetu kama mbuzi (The police are heartless and cruel. They don’t consider the pain parents undergo when they have to see their children take their last breath. They are killing our kids like goats)!” she said.

 "Wameniua mum," he said [Photo: Courtesy]

She added that her son called her from outside and before she could open the door, sounds of gun shots rent the air.

“When I stepped out, Abdi was bleeding profusely while holding his chest. He fell on me and said, ‘Wameniua mum.’ It was such a painful experience. I even contemplated suicide. Why couldn’t they just jail him for life then?,” she wondered. 

After the tragic incident, Aabidah moved to Eastleigh with hopes that the remaining son will be her comforter. She was also escaping the stigma.

Three years down the line, her remaining son was killed in the streets of Eastleigh. This left her with nothing than a title of “Mama Moha” who was no more.

Seeking comfort from her business, Aabidah hides her grief in her business.

“My business comforts me. Spending time on the streets talking to clients helps in dulling and forgetting the pain. It pains me whenever people call me Mama Moha, yet there is no difference between me and a barren woman. All my three sons were killed before they got married,” Aabidah says, adding that she is left to admire her co-wife’s children. 

“After the death of my children, my husband kept off our matrimonial home and spends most his time with his other wife,” she told The Nairobian.

 After the death of my children, my husband kept off [Photo: Courtesy]

In Mathare, Juliet Wangare derives comfort from her late son’s friends who pay her a visit once in a while.

Wangare who is currently separated from her husband, moved to Mathare slums two decades ago. The tough ghetto life pushed her two children into hustling at a tender age.

Both of them dropped out of primary school and joined a garbage collection group in Mathare, where they met other boys who influenced them to indulge in drugs and petty robbery.

Wangare’s first son was shot around Mathare Mlango Kubwa four years ago. The other was gunned down six months later after he was released from prison.

“There is nothing as painful as being called Mama Njoro, yet he is no more. And our neighbours don’t want anything to do with us. Whenever things get lost from the neighbourhood, we are the first suspects,” says Wangare, adding that she prefers life sentence to ruthless killings by police.

Wangare and a few women who have lost their children have formed a chama where they meet once in a month to comfort one each other by raising funds and supporting each other.

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