The court had to adjourn three times to allow Lenser Achieng, Pendo’s mother, to compose herself and testify, even as she battled emotions from the memory of the event. Wiping tears, sobbing and changing standing positions was the order, her face full of anger as she told the court how ‘results of democracy snatched her baby.’

Baby Pendo died on August 15, at Aga Khan Hospital in Kisumu, three days after she was allegedly attacked by anti-riot police in their Nyalenda house following skirmishes which followed declaration of President Uhuru Kenyatta as the winner of the August 8, presidential election.

After Independent Police Oversight Authority (IPOA) failed to place a finger at her killers, the office of the Director of Public Prosecution in November directed for a public inquest to help trace the perpetrators of the heinous act. And yesterday, Achieng was the first witness to take to the stand, out of the 21 witnesses set to testify in the inquest.

By 10am, Achieng who was dressed in a grey dress took to the stand, recounting step by step of the painful ordeal that her family went through following the midnight attack on their single roomed house. She said that what started as an ordinary day which saw her left work for home very early turned out to be a nightmare when they were awoken by loud screams from neighbors. “We retired to bed early that day and at around midnight, I heard my neighbor screaming because they