By Brenda Wanga, KISII Kenya
The dust has long settled and the air over Kisii town cleared since the fracas witnessed here on Friday, as this town joined in the Saba Saba protests organised by the opposition against the high cost of living amongst other grievances.
But while life is slowly returning to normal for a majority of the town's residents, three families’ lives have been changed permanently.
The family of 23-year-old Eunice Mutheu, a student at the Kisii Polytechnic are mourning her passing.
The late Eunice passed on Saturday morning of complications from bullet injuries she sustained on Friday while helping out at the family's business in town.
Mary Ngui was in the same building with Eunice at the time of the protests.
“Tulikuwa watu watatu na mtoto pia, sasa niliskia dirisha imegongwa tukadhani ni teargas ya pili tulilala chini kumbe Mary alikuwa ameshapigwa...ata marisasi zilikwama kwa ukuta,” she says.
Eunice was caught up in a fight that wasn't hers and one that she hadn't participated in. Her kin says she had come home from college for the weekend when she was caught in the crossfire, quite literally.
In the shop, evidence of the gravity of the police firepower. over five bullets were fired in the direction where Eunice was hiding, in the back of the M-pesa shop building.
She suffered injuries that turned fatal.
Now, her family is planning her funeral as they decry the senseless taking of a young bright life. At a hospital in town, those who suffered injuries are recuperating.
Gladys was in the right place at the wrong time...she doesn't live within the town but was running health-related errands when a policeman's bullet caught her. That bullet has now left her family destitute.
“Nilipigwa risasi ya breast na sahii ata sijui familia yangu itakuwaaje na mimi ndio nilikuwa tegemeo,” she narrates.
Boniface Mbaka, who sells vegetables in Kisii town, says he was not a party to the demonstrations on Friday. He claims that he surrendered to the police, but that did not save him from the bullets.
"Hiyo siku ata sikuwa katika maandano nilikuwa kwa kibanda changu na ata nikaambia polisi, niliskia moja akisema hatutaki kuona kijana ,muue ndio wakaanza kunilenga na ata wakanishika na kunipiga vibaya hadi nikavunjika mguu,” he says.
Police officers from Kisii say the protesters had wanted to torch the police station being repulsed.
The fatal police brutality has been condemned with the Kisii County Governor Simba Arati calling for thorough and expeditious investigations into the allegations of excessive force and use of live ammunition by law enforcement agencies and for those found culpable for any misconduct to be held accountable.
Twenty people were arrested in the demonstrations, while an unknown number were injured.
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