NAIROBI: Susan Wangari has lost count of the morgues, hospitals and police stations she has visited in search of her son, who went missing at the height of Kenya’s mass protests last June.
She last saw Emmanuel Mukuria, 24, on the morning of June 25, 2024, the day that thousands of Kenyan youths thronged the streets of Nairobi and stormed parliament in protest at planned tax rises and corruption.
“It would be better if my son were dead; at least I could visit his grave,” she told AFP.
Rights groups say at least 60 people were killed during the protests in June and July, and more than 80 abducted by the security forces since then, with dozens still missing.
Mukuria’s friends say he was arrested during the protests in the city center, where he worked as a minibus tout.
“We do not have peace in this house,” his mother, 50, told AFP during a visit to her single-room home in the Kasarani slum area.
“I sleep lightly at night in case he comes knocking at my window like he always did,” she said.
“Every time we hear that bodies have been found somewhere, we are anxious to know whose they are.”
Two men told her they shared a cell with Mukuria, but they are too afraid to speak publicly about their ordeal.
One was only released in February, giving her hope that her son is still alive in captivity.
“They told me they were beaten and questioned about the protests. They were being asked who paid them to participate,” Wangari said.
Last month, President William Ruto, in a clear admission that security forces had engaged in kidnappings, said all those abducted during the protests had been “returned to their families.”
Rights groups say dozens are still missing and police have shown little progress in investigating the disappearances despite Ruto claiming an “accountability mechanism” was put in place.
Questioned by AFP, the president’s office said the police were “handling the brief,” while a police spokesman referred AFP back to the president’s office.
The police spokesman said they had no information on Mukuria’s case. An officer-in-charge at the station where Wangari reported him missing said the matter was still under investigation.
Many other families are still dealing with the aftermath of the violence.
Rex Masai, 29, was the first to die during the protests, shot and killed in the city center on June 20.
The inquest into his death is still dragging on.
“We are hoping for the best but we are not near the truth,” Masai’s mother Gillian Munyao told AFP at her home, where a photo of her dreadlocked son hangs on the wall.
She found her son lying lifeless in a pool of blood at a clinic where he was taken that day.
The state prosecutor has said a lack of witnesses has delayed progress in the case.
One potential witness was scared off for fear he might be “forcibly disappeared” by the police, Munyao said.
Hussein Khalid, head of rights group Vocal Africa, blamed a “lack of cooperation by the authorities.”
“When you get evidence, the unfortunate bit is you have to take it to the police themselves,” he said.
He lost count of the number of funerals he attended after the protests, estimating between 20 and 30.
“Was it necessary to unleash this kind of brute force against young, innocent Kenyans?” he said.
Politicians have shown little interest in accountability or learning from the unrest.
“People were killed, we sympathized, we moved on,” Bashir Abdullahi, a member of the ruling coalition, told parliament during a debate on the protests last month.
But for victim’s families, the search for justice “means a lot,” said Masai’s father, Chrispin Odawa.
“The wound will never heal,” he said.
‘Better if he was dead’: Kenyan mother’s search for son year after protests
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‘Better if he was dead’: Kenyan mother’s search for son year after protests
- Susan Wangari has lost count of the morgues, hospitals and police stations she has visited in search of her son, who went missing at the height of Kenya’s mass protests last June
Gaza student evacuated to UK with her family after government climbdown
- Manar Al-Houbi was initially denied permission to bring her husband and children after changes to UK rules on foreign scholarship recipients
- Several students still stranded in Gaza as relocation deadline looms, after refusing to abandon family members
LONDON: A student from Gaza granted permission to live and study in the UK has been evacuated from the Palestinian territory, with her family, by the British government.
Manar Al-Houbi won a full scholarship to study for a doctorate at the University of Glasgow. It also allowed her to bring her husband and children with her, and they applied for the required visas. But shortly before her studies were due to start, UK authorities told her the rules for international students and their dependents had changed and her family could no longer accompany her.
Shortly after her story was reported in October, however, the government backed down as said it would consider evacuation of international students’ dependents on a “case-by-case basis.”
Al-Houbi and her family are now in Jordan, on their way to the UK, The Guardian newspaper reported on Friday. The British scheme for the evacuation of students from Gaza is due to expire on Dec. 31. People who have attempted to use it have described it as being riddled with issues, as a result of which some students with scholarships have been left stranded in the Palestinian territory.
Several told the Guardian they had decided not to travel to the UK because they had felt pressured into leaving loved ones behind, including children.
Wahhaj Mohammed, 32, said he was told by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office to travel to the UK alone, and his wife and children would be allowed to join him later. Two months after he arrived in Glasgow, his family are still in Gaza with no time frame for them to follow him.
“The uncertainty affects every aspect of my life here,” he told The Guardian. “It’s difficult to settle, to feel present or to engage academically when the people you love most remain living under constant threat.”
The Guardian said UK officials were “hopeful” his family would be evacuated in 2026 but could offer no guarantee about when this might happen.
Another student, Amany Shaher, said she refused to leave her family behind in Gaza and as a result was denied permission to travel to the UK this week. She does not know whether she will be permitted to defer her scholarship to study at the University of Bristol.
The 34-year-old, who has three children, said: “How can I even consider leaving my children behind in Gaza? Nowhere else in the world would a mother be expected to part so easily from her children. It’s dehumanizing. We have a right to stick together as a family and not be forced to separate — that should not be too much to ask.
“None of us know if the UK’s student evacuation scheme will be extended or not. We haven’t been given any clear guidance or timelines and have no idea what 2026 will bring.”
Mohammed Aldalou also refused to leave behind his family, including his 5-year-old autistic and non-verbal son, to take up a scholarship for postgraduate studies at the London School of Economics.
He said the Foreign Office had suggested to him he travel separately from them, as they did with Mohammed.
“They should ask themselves what they would do if they were in my shoes,” he said. “It’s heartbreaking that after everything we’ve been through, we’re being asked to make this impossible decision.”
Sources told The Guardian it was unlikely the Foreign Office would extend the scheme to allow students to travel from Gaza to the UK later, but that a meeting took place last week with the Department for Education to discuss whether students could begin their studies online.
