SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
'Brutality Beyond Words': Kenyan Police Fire Tear Gas at Protesting Children
Fighting to keep school playground, Kenyan children and activists assaulted by police
Jan 19, 2015
Kenyan police fired tear gas at a crowd of children protesting the seizure of their school playground by a property developer on Monday.
About 100 children between eight and 13 years old from Langata Road primary school in Nairobi, along with a smaller group of parents and activists, converged in front of a newly built wall that separated their school building from a playing field, which had been built over a holiday.
As the children tried to access the playground, roughly 40 police officers who responded to the scene fired tear gas canisters at the crowd, forcing them to disperse. Officers also reportedly brought police dogs to help them break up the crowds.
Agence France-Presse reported that the dozens of children who were caught choking in the fumes ran to take shelter on a pedestrian bridge nearby.
In a video published by Reuters, the crowd can be seen pushing against the barriers that separate the field from the school building, forcing open the gate and breaking down a smaller cement section of the wall amid cheers of celebration. Some of the children held up signs proclaiming, "Kenya: Land of the shameless grabbers" and "Land Grabbing is Terror Against Children."
Activist Boniface Mwangi told Al Jazeera, "The children were peaceful and all they wanted was access to their playground during break time. The children walked peaceful to the gate that has been set up by the grabber and police responded with tear gas. A few of them were injured."
According to Mwangi, the developer who seized the playground is a powerful politician. "The governor, the senator and other government officials are all scared of the politician, they cannot do anything to stop the playground from the being taken," he told the Associated Press. The playground is reportedly due to be paved into a parking lot.
Charges of land grabs by Kenyan officials has become a controversial issue in the country.
Mwangi later Tweeted:
Macharia Njeru, chairman of the Independent Policing Oversight Authority, told AFP that the police would be investigated for their actions. "Tear gassing children is inexcusable," she said.
Opposition leader Raila Odinga told AP, "This is brutality beyond words and greed beyond description. It is difficult to believe that police can actually deploy against primary school children and lob tear gas at them to defend a land grabber. This image of a nation determined to steal forcefully from its own children cannot be what we aspire to. It cannot be the legacy we want to bequeath the children."
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Nadia Prupis
Nadia Prupis is a former Common Dreams staff writer. She wrote on media policy for Truthout.org and has been published in New America Media and AlterNet. She graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a BA in English in 2008.
Kenyan police fired tear gas at a crowd of children protesting the seizure of their school playground by a property developer on Monday.
About 100 children between eight and 13 years old from Langata Road primary school in Nairobi, along with a smaller group of parents and activists, converged in front of a newly built wall that separated their school building from a playing field, which had been built over a holiday.
As the children tried to access the playground, roughly 40 police officers who responded to the scene fired tear gas canisters at the crowd, forcing them to disperse. Officers also reportedly brought police dogs to help them break up the crowds.
Agence France-Presse reported that the dozens of children who were caught choking in the fumes ran to take shelter on a pedestrian bridge nearby.
In a video published by Reuters, the crowd can be seen pushing against the barriers that separate the field from the school building, forcing open the gate and breaking down a smaller cement section of the wall amid cheers of celebration. Some of the children held up signs proclaiming, "Kenya: Land of the shameless grabbers" and "Land Grabbing is Terror Against Children."
Activist Boniface Mwangi told Al Jazeera, "The children were peaceful and all they wanted was access to their playground during break time. The children walked peaceful to the gate that has been set up by the grabber and police responded with tear gas. A few of them were injured."
According to Mwangi, the developer who seized the playground is a powerful politician. "The governor, the senator and other government officials are all scared of the politician, they cannot do anything to stop the playground from the being taken," he told the Associated Press. The playground is reportedly due to be paved into a parking lot.
Charges of land grabs by Kenyan officials has become a controversial issue in the country.
Mwangi later Tweeted:
Macharia Njeru, chairman of the Independent Policing Oversight Authority, told AFP that the police would be investigated for their actions. "Tear gassing children is inexcusable," she said.
Opposition leader Raila Odinga told AP, "This is brutality beyond words and greed beyond description. It is difficult to believe that police can actually deploy against primary school children and lob tear gas at them to defend a land grabber. This image of a nation determined to steal forcefully from its own children cannot be what we aspire to. It cannot be the legacy we want to bequeath the children."
Nadia Prupis
Nadia Prupis is a former Common Dreams staff writer. She wrote on media policy for Truthout.org and has been published in New America Media and AlterNet. She graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a BA in English in 2008.
Kenyan police fired tear gas at a crowd of children protesting the seizure of their school playground by a property developer on Monday.
About 100 children between eight and 13 years old from Langata Road primary school in Nairobi, along with a smaller group of parents and activists, converged in front of a newly built wall that separated their school building from a playing field, which had been built over a holiday.
As the children tried to access the playground, roughly 40 police officers who responded to the scene fired tear gas canisters at the crowd, forcing them to disperse. Officers also reportedly brought police dogs to help them break up the crowds.
Agence France-Presse reported that the dozens of children who were caught choking in the fumes ran to take shelter on a pedestrian bridge nearby.
In a video published by Reuters, the crowd can be seen pushing against the barriers that separate the field from the school building, forcing open the gate and breaking down a smaller cement section of the wall amid cheers of celebration. Some of the children held up signs proclaiming, "Kenya: Land of the shameless grabbers" and "Land Grabbing is Terror Against Children."
Activist Boniface Mwangi told Al Jazeera, "The children were peaceful and all they wanted was access to their playground during break time. The children walked peaceful to the gate that has been set up by the grabber and police responded with tear gas. A few of them were injured."
According to Mwangi, the developer who seized the playground is a powerful politician. "The governor, the senator and other government officials are all scared of the politician, they cannot do anything to stop the playground from the being taken," he told the Associated Press. The playground is reportedly due to be paved into a parking lot.
Charges of land grabs by Kenyan officials has become a controversial issue in the country.
Mwangi later Tweeted:
Macharia Njeru, chairman of the Independent Policing Oversight Authority, told AFP that the police would be investigated for their actions. "Tear gassing children is inexcusable," she said.
Opposition leader Raila Odinga told AP, "This is brutality beyond words and greed beyond description. It is difficult to believe that police can actually deploy against primary school children and lob tear gas at them to defend a land grabber. This image of a nation determined to steal forcefully from its own children cannot be what we aspire to. It cannot be the legacy we want to bequeath the children."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.