If you have ever tried to park a vehicle along Banda Street off Kimathi Street in Nairobi Central Business District, you most likely met Kevin Luvega.
He is one of the faces that you would see directing traffic and asking drivers if they needed a parking slot along the road until police unleashed terror on him during Tuesday's anti-government protests.
His ordeal was captured in a CCTV footage in which he is seen writhing in pain after he was shot by anti-riot police with rubber bullets.
He was picked up by Good Samaritans who took him to Bliss Hospital near Archives, which was one of the epicentres of the city demonstrations.
“I have no relocations of what happened after the police shot directly at me. All I remember is being woken up by teargas while being attended for first aid at a hospital along Moi Avenue,” narrated the 27-year-old father of two in an interview with the Nation.
For him, Tuesday was a different day because of what lay ahead.
He wanted to skip the demos but decided to come and join the demonstrators only to be met with police brutality.
“I had a whistle as I joined other demonstrators. As we were walking along Moi Avenue, I didn't see the police officer aiming at me. The next thing I knew is being woken up while still bleeding at a local hospital along Moi Avenue after the police teargassed it,” he said.
Unavailability of ambulances
While medics had referred him to Kenyatta National Hospital for specialised attention, he could not be transported for almost five hours because of the demonstrations and the unavailability of ambulances.
At Kenyatta, he still had to wait for three hours to be taken to the theatre. All this time, he was still unconscious and bleeding.
When the Nation visited him in Kangemi, where he lives, he clarified that it was not a fatal live bullet but was shot by a rubber one, which left him unconscious.
“He is our breadwinner since I do not have anything to do right now. The demos have messed up what I used to do in CBD. The government should intervene,” she said.
Hospital documents from KNH say that Luvega suffered multiple bone fractures and soft-tissue injuries which resulted in heavy bleeding.
Impending medical expenses
KNH discharged him in the middle of the night as the hospital could not contain the injuries that were being referred to the hospital.
He is currently recuperating at home and appealed to well-wishers to come to his aid as he cannot afford the impending medical expenses.
During the demonstrations along Moi Avenue, police used deadly force on demonstrators which left several protesters injured, with the Bliss Moi Avenue Hospital attending to at least 30, some with gunshot wounds.
The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) reported that the Tuesday killings pushed the total number of deaths since the protests began to 50.
The commission also recorded 82 more injuries, taking the number to 574. There were 77 more arrests, pushing the tally to 1,201 since the protests began.
