On Monday night, a fracas that had been sponsored by a section of community leaders inside Kenya’s largest slums degenerated into chaos.
Monday is the designated day for protesting the high cost of living amid the government of Kenya’s non-committed mannerism to curb high cost of goods and services.
However, as one Monday went and another was ushered, most residents of Kibra didn’t know that the second one would be destructive and deadly.
During the day, the National Police Service officers had sided with part of the gangs in and around Kibra.
NPS officers were scene protecting Nubian youths from the more organic protestors from other tribes.
A cross-section of leaders condemned the chaos, some calling on the govt to end it.
The police, obviously, the sponsors, were adamant to send officers to put a stop to it.
“What is happening is extremely wrong, religious sites must be left out of this,” one local said.
Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja said county fire engines managed to put out the fire before it could spread to residential houses.
“After a brief initial repulsion, three trucks managed to get to the scene and the fire has been contained from spreading further to households,” Sakaja tweeted.
For hours, the fighting went on in Kibra, sparking widespread condemnation on social media where leaders and other Kenyans pleaded with authorities to intervene.
“Just like in Northlands, the police are ignoring calls to intervene in Kibra where outsiders wielding pangas have been mobilized to attack locals. They have set a Church ablaze in an attempt to set residents against each other. We urge our people to exercise utmost restraint,” said ODM Secretary General Edwin Sifuna who is also the city’s Senator.
Some residents have nowhere to sleep as they fled their homes fearing reprisal attacks.