At least 31 people have been killed, hundreds injured, and 532 arrested by Kenyan police during "Saba Saba" protests. The government ordered TV and radio stations to stop live protest coverage. Twelve-year-old Bridgit Njoki was watching TV when a stray bullet from the protest stole her life. Police shrugged off her family’s outcry.
Police violence is so ever-present that these protests were both responding to current conditions, like the killing of 31-year-old teacher Albert Ojwang, and commemorating the anniversary of last year’s protests against tax increases. Kenya’s young protesters unmistakably resemble U.S. protesters. Why?
The Kenyan state, too, adopts and manipulates narratives about "violent" vs. "peaceful" protests. Kenyan police reform’s "bad apple" strategy has failed. Plainclothes officers cause mayhem, and police are employed for social services, from mental health to water supply.
The British established the Kenyan Police Force in 1920, the same year it made Kenya an "official colony." Whites displaced Kenyans. When Native Africans resisted, settlers also formed vigilante squads called the Administrative Police. Both forces condensed into one in 2019.
Anti-Blackness and genocidal settler-colonial conquest rob our genealogical and political kin. If we’re to stop this violence, we need a complete understanding of everywhere it lives.