Family of protester shot dead outside Parliament sues police

The family of a Sunday school teacher who was shot dead outside Parliament, Nairobi has sued the government, seeking prosecution of the officers who were deployed to quell protests in June.

The late David Chege’s family, in a case filed before High Court Judge Florence Muchemi, also wants compensation from the government, citing violation of his right to life.

This comes after High Court Judge Chacha Mwita, in a separate case related to protests, barred the Directorate of Criminal Investigations from interfering with the operations of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) until the application filed by Katiba Institute, International Commission of Jurists (Kenya Chapter), institute for Social Accountability and Lindon Nicholas is heard and determined.

Chege’s family lawyer, Dudley Ochiel, told the court that despite the government being aware of who was commanding the police who had been deployed to Parliament and a formal murder complaint lodged, his killer is still working as an officer.

Photos circulated online showed the protester’s body lying outside Parliament on June 25, 2024, with four other protestors holding a flag.

Ochiel argued that the photo is evidence of the excesses of the police who were deployed to stop protestors from breaching Parliament.

“Since then, the arbitrary and fatal shooting of David Chege by the Kenyan police has not been investigated at all or, in the alternative, if there have been any investigations, they have not been prompt, independent, impartial, effective, accountable, or led to the prosecution of the material and intellectual perpetrators of the violation,” he said.

Chege’s brother, Brian Kinyanjui, told the court that he (Chege) was among youths in the streets of Nairobi who were protesting against the Finance Bill 2024.

Kinyanjui said that the deceased was a Mathematics and Computer Science graduate and a Maseno University alumnus who worked as a freelance Information and Communication Technology expert.

He told the court that Chege was a religion teacher at the Jubilee Christian Church (JCC).

The court heard that during the protests he was preparing to to leave for Germany, where he had secured a job.

However, Kinyanjui lamented that a trigger-happy police sniper killed his brother. The court heard that Chege was shot in the head.

“The police killed him in his first protest ever. After killing my brother, the police aggressively teargassed four boys who were holding the flag and singing the national anthem over my brother’s body,” he said.

He argued that there was no reason to kill Chege as he only had a national identification card and a mobile phone.

"My brother’s unlawful execution has unimaginably affected my family. He did not even carry the national flag or water bottle, ubiquitous in the protests. He was peaceful and unarmed and was thus entitled by Article 37 of the Constitution to protest,” Kinyanjui said.

At the time of his death, Chege was 39 years.  He was in a black hoodie, and a red t-shirt when he was killed. A postmortem indicated that he must have been facing the killer. 

Kinyanjui said it is unfair that the government did not hold to account the killer officer.

The family sued Inspector General of Police, Attorney General, Nairobi County Commander Adamson Bungei, and Independent Policing Oversight Authority.