Youth protest in city centre over killing of ODM official

Nairobi ODM youth official Stephen Mukabana was shot dead on tuesday night by suspected thugs ODM youths demonstrating on the streets in town taken on 13th April 2016. PHOTO:WILBERFORCE OKWIRI

Orange Democratic Movement members yesterday demonstrated in Nairobi over the killing of party leader Stephen Mukabana.

Mr Mukabana was shot dead on Tuesday night as he entered his home in Nairobi's Utawala.

Angry youths carrying the body protested in the city centre, citing malice as the cause of the killing.

It took the intervention of Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero to calm them down and take the body to the mortuary.

The ODM official is said to have been 'helping' another victim who was allegedly being robbed near his home when he met his death.

He was shot severally in the head and chest.

Nairobi police boss Japheth Koome said Mukabana was driving into his compound when he heard screams from a dark alley where a man was being robbed.

The other victim was also shot and wounded but he is in stable condition in hospital.

Speaking to The Standard, some of Mukabana's followers gave a different account of how their leader died.

"He was abducted by some thugs when he was getting into his house at night. They later shot him execution style," said Livingstone Sande.

Mukabana had declared interest in running for the Embakasi East parliamentary seat.

"I will do everything in my powers to ensure those who did it pay for their acts. This is a cold-blooded murder which is an act of hooliganism and cowardice," said Dr Kidero.

Meanwhile, the National Coalition of Human Rights Defenders (NCHRD) has asked the Inspector General of Police Joseph Boinett and the Directorate of Public Prosecutions to launch an investigation into the killing of John Waweru, a land and environmental activist.

Mr Waweru, who was also the director of Githunguri Constituency Ranching Company, was shot twice in the chest while dropping off a friend in Zimmerman, Nairobi, on April 11.

NCHRD Executive Director Kamau Ngungi said attacks on human rights defenders relating to their work on land and environmental rights were alarming.