The hash-tag #Justiceforcomrades was trending for the better part of Tuesday, after University students staged a peaceful demonstration to demand justice for their colleagues who have been directly killed by policemen or indirectly by thugs who could not be there if there was security.
Under the umbrella of Kenya Universities Students Organisation (Kuso) led by the union chairman Anthony Manyara, they said six students were killed by police last year alone.
Here we look at some of the prominent deaths that shook the nation:
EVANS “KIDERO” NJOROGE
Being the secretary-general of Meru University of Science and Technology Student Association placed Evans on the warpath with the police. On February 27, 2018, students at the university held a protest demanding the reduction of school fees.
Unknown to Evans, it would be his last day alive. Police charged at the protesting learners and witnesses say they saw a police officer shoot Evans at close range.
In July 2018, Administration Police officer Leaky Maina was presented before a Meru court and charged with killing Evans, an accusation he denied. The trial is ongoing.
TIM SYDNEY AOMBA
Tim died on the night of May 4, 2018 when he was accosted by suspected muggers in Juja town.
Known for sporting dreadlocks, Tim was a student at the Jomo Kenyatta University of Science and Technology (JKUAT) and was a promising player in the university’s team blazing the trail in the little-appreciated American football.
“After he was stabbed, he tried to run away but could not get far as he was bleeding profusely so he fell in front of a shop owned by some woman who paid a nearby boda boda rider to rush him to the JKUAT students’ hospital.
Unfortunately, he had already lost too much blood by then and was declared dead on arrival,” said a police report on his death.
CARILTON DAVID MAINA
The news of Carilton’s death in late December hit many with a sting given the promising future that lay ahead of him. Carilton, who scored a straight A in the 2013 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examination, was a student at the University of Leeds.
He had secured his place there partly because of footballing skills.
Carilton had travelled back to Kenya to spend the festive season with his relatives when he was felled by police bullets in Kibera on the night of December 21.
The police version of events is that he was part of a group robbing locals.
A few days after the incident, the Independent Policing Oversight Authority said it had launched independent investigations into the killing.