The crushing pain of suddenly losing a child filled the courtroom. Tears flowed.
Parents testifying in the inquest were unable to recount the violent circumstances in which their children died.
Thursday was an emotional day in Makadara court, Nairobi. Parents and relatives of eight boys shot dead by police in Mukuru Kwa Reuben in April 2016 struggled to testify.
On that day three years ago, it was reported that a caller alerted the police that more than 15 youngsters who “were up to no good’’ were meeting in Zone Rurie in the slum.
Two officers responded to the call. Within minutes of their arrival, eight boys, including the son of the caller, lay dead in pools of blood on dirty slum paths.
They were: Shadrack Omuroka (16), Nixon Obure (16), William Matendu (19), Francis Kioko (17), Samuel Ndegwa (19), John Mwangi (17), Elisha Mushughadi and Albert Nyachae (both 24).
Most of the boys were on holiday. They had met for the noble agenda of cleaning up their village.
They worked as garbage collectors, the court was told.
Bernard Mutiso said he had three children, including the deceased Francis Kioko who was 17 years.
He had come back from his rural home on the date of the killings. He asked Peter, his youngest son, where his elder brother was. He was in a meeting of garbage collectors, he was told.
Minutes later he heard gunshots.
“There were many gunshots. As I walked out I met a police officer who ordered me to go back to the house,”Mutiso told chief magistrate Heston Nyaga.
He did. After the guns went silent, he ventured out and met a boy who told him some boys had been shot dead and his son was among them.
It was at City Mortuary he identified his son Francis's body.
"I saw my son. He was there. He was shot in the chest.”
Vald Kirigha who lost a son, Mwashigadi, said he lived with his child and on that day he got a call from a relative who asked where Mwashigadi was.
"I called him but his phone wasn't going through."
Kirigah became so emotional he had to be calmed to continue.
He said his younger son Jacob told him there was a shooting and Mwashigadi was killed alongside seven others.
He told court he saw his son with gunshots in his chest.
“He was a funny boy. He even tried out Churchill Show. But he was told he was not there yet. He was about to do his exams at driving school,” Kirigha said.
Kirigha said he did not know about the meeting and the scene of shooting was not at the dumpsite but outside a house.
Mary Wanjiru lost her brother Samuel who worked at a car wash.
A caller informed her Sammy had been shot dead. He had just moved to Mukuru Kwa Reuben.
“We are orphans and I am the elder sister. I buried my brother at Langata,” she testified amid sobs.
Phillis Kemunto lost his son Albert Nyachae. She was selling vegetables when she got a call from a neighbour telling her to rush back home.
Upon arrival she saw bodies being loaded into a van. She saw her son's body during postmortem. He had several gunshot wounds
Ann Njeri informed the court her son had four gunshots wounds in the hand and chest
“That day, my son had borrowed Sh 150. He wanted to join a football club.”
The inquest continues in October
