A protester was shot dead in Nanyuki by a police officer while protesting against the U.S.-backed Ebola quarantine centre.
The non-profit Kenya Human Rights Commission said in a statement posted on its X account late Tuesday that “hooded police officers… fired live bullets and arbitrarily arrested 19 protesters.”
The confrontation erupted when hundreds of demonstrators gathered at Lakipia Air Base carrying placards, symbolic crosses, and Kenyan flags. They accused the US of trying to avoid the risk of caring for the exposed in Congo or Uganda and demanded that both governments halt construction and comply with judicial orders to suspend the project.
Eyewitnesses claimed that the victim died from a shot to the head and that he was shot during a confrontation with security officers. Some reporters confirmed seeing his body with a large head wound, lying in the back of a police car.
As of now, no official information on the identity of the victim has been released, and a police spokesperson said he had not yet received any information regarding the shooting.
