Kisumu, the lakeside city bears scars of constant police brutality

Police disperse protesters at Nyalenda slum in Kisumu County after chaos erupted following announcement by the IEBC that President Uhuru had been re-elected. [Photo: File]

Kenya’s third city, Kisumu is synonymous with State-related brutality, a distinction that dates back to 1969 when two prominent Luo politicians, CMG Argwings Kodhek and Tom Mboya were assassinated in a span of six months.

In what resembled a premeditated massacre two months into Mboya’s killing, President Jomo Kenyatta’s security detail and the elite presidential guard opened fire indiscriminately into crowds including school children marshaled to entertain him, killing many after he publicly differed with Jaramogi Oginga Odinga at the New Nyanza General Hospital he had come to officially open. The pogrom continued along the Kisumu-Nairobi Road until the presidential motorcade was outside Nyanza Province.