Students at the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) on Friday, July 12, 2024, took to the streets in protest over the death of a student identified as Denzel Omondi.
The students poured onto the streets after the body of Omondi was found in the Gachororo quarry in Kiambu County, days after he was reported missing.
Omondi was among a group of youth who stormed the Parliament buildings on June 25, 2024, and recorded himself inside the premises.
His parents said the 24-year-old Quantity Analysis student had called them after the June 25, 2024, protests and was in high spirits.
They, however, lost contact with the student on June 27, 2024, from where his body would be discovered at Kiambu County’s Gachororo quarry.
An autopsy report conducted on the student revealed that he died of drowning, but his parents believe he was abducted and killed following his participation in the protests.
“The investigative agencies have to tell us what really caused this because I spoke to this boy three hours before he went missing and he was in a good mood,” Omondi’s father, James Otieno, told a local TV station.
IPOA investigation
As this happened, investigators from the Independent Policing Oversight Authority revisited the quarry on Wednesday, July 10, 2024, to try and reconstruct the circumstances under which the body found itself in the area.
Human rights agencies have also expressed their misgivings about the autopsy report, asking for further investigations into the death.
During the invasion of Parliament, Omondi took a video of himself in the area, and his parents believe he was abducted thereafter after the clip went viral.
Protests on June 25, 2024, took an unprecedented turn after youth breached Parliament security and accessed the chambers.
Several people were shot dead along Parliament Road, while scores of others sustained serious injuries.
The protesters vandalised the chambers, shattered glass panels, and destroyed furniture and art in the chambers as members of parliament scampered for safety.
The members of parliament were evacuated through a secret underground tunnel that runs from the Parliament and Senate buildings and connects with the Kenyatta International Convention Centre, (KICC).
President William Ruto has since withdrawn the controversial Finance Bill 2024, which was at the centre of the protests.
Equally, Ruto has dissolved his cabinet except for two ministries, promising a lean and representative government with a composition involving leaders from various sectors of the nation.
