Chaos as varsity students stage street protests

Protesting University of Nairobi students on Tuesday blocked major roads in Nairobi, paralysing traffic in several parts of the city.

The students, numbering around 3,000 held up traffic for more than six hours in several parts of Nairobi from morning as they held the protest against the shooting of their colleague Godwin Ogato by police on Thursday last week.

They wore black T-shirts bearing the message “No tax for MPs, No tax for us, Utado?” and chanted anti-government slogans. They had also prepared placards bearing messages for the government.

Mr Ogato, a 29-year-old political science student, was shot by police who were trying to collect the bodies of two NGO activists who were killed, execution style, near the university after a day of protests they had organised.

The activists from Oscar Foundation, Oscar Kamau King’ara and Paul Oulu, were killed on State House Road near the university.

Tuesday's demonstration was held from the university to Uhuru Park and then to Harambee Avenue, on which several government offices including that of the president are located.

It started outside the students’ hostels, onto Mamlaka Road, State House Road, Uhuru Highway, Kenyatta Avenue, Haile Selassie Avenue, Moi Avenue, Harambee Avenue and then back towards the university through Uhuru Highway and several other streets in the Central Business District.

Notably, police did not appear to stop the protests although they monitored the activities from afar for around six hours. It was the first time such a demonstration has been allowed to proceed without being broken up by the police.

A silent march by the media fraternity in September 2007 was the last successful protest in the city against government action.

Prime Minister Raila Odinga had on Tuesday warned police against interfering with the demonstration and directed them to let the students go ahead with the march.

UoN vice chancellor George Magoha had warned the students against taking to the streets.

“We do not want the students to go out because there are no assurances that they will not be joined by other people,” said Prof Magoha.

Calls for the removal of Police Commissioner Hussein Ali and government spokesman Alfred Mutua characterised the peaceful protests. The students presented a petition calling for the removal of Major Gen Ali to police spokesman Eric Kiraithe outside Vigilance House.

There was a light moment outside Harambee House when students demanded a foreign president and prime minister with government employees laughing at the remarks.

They later set fire to a banner outside Harambee House, where anti riot police and government employees watched from within the compound.

Police on horseback watched the action from afar and only briefly stepped in to prevent the students from storming Laico Regency Hotel. The students added the hotel to their itinerary after briefly demonstrating outside the Nation Centre and Standard Group offices.

The students used the opportunity to demand an explanation form the government on a wide variety of issues from the 2005 raid on the Standard Group to the Artur Brothers saga of the same year.

“The government must listen to us,” said Students Organisation of Nairobi University (SONU) chairman Dan Mwangi.

“The tension has been building up over time and the killing of Ogato was just a trigger. This is not just about the student,” said Clive Ombane, a brother to the slain student and a former student leader at UoN.

The students later held up traffic on the junction of Uhuru Highway and University Way, commandeered a matatu and several trucks and stoned a Mercedes Benz vehicle bearing GK registration plates.

Officers guarding a van transporting money on Loita Street were forced to fire in the air to scare way students who had approached the vehicle.

Some students looted Nakumatt Lifestyle supermarket, Kengeles Restaurant on Koinange Street while their colleagues held up traffic on Uhuru Highway.

Businesses along the roads the students used were hurriedly shut as their owners feared a repeat of the looting common in students’ protests in the 1990s.

SONU vice chairman Joseph Opiyo told the Nation that he had received a message from a strange number on Monday night warning him not to lead students in yesterday’s protest.

The message had warned him to 'dig himself a grave before he takes to the street.’

“We are aware you get money from NGOs” the message ended. Mr Opiyo said Mars Group, an NGO associated with former Transparency International head Mwalimu Mati, had given them the t-shirts.