A teenager killed this week during protests in central Kenya over a planned Ebola quarantine facility for exposed Americans was on his way to collect a new school uniform when he was caught up in the unrest, his grandmother said.
Seventeen-year-old Sylvester Muigai had left home for an errand involving his school uniform when he became involved in demonstrations in Nanyuki, his grandmother, who lived with him, told Reuters in an interview.
She said police informed the family that Muigai was killed by a tear-gas canister, contradicting accounts from multiple eyewitnesses and a protest leader who said he had been shot on Tuesday, the day he died.
Two Reuters reporters in Nanyuki did not witness the moment of his death but saw a body lying motionless with a large head wound inside a police van at the scene of the protests.
Local police commander Daniel Kitavi, when asked about the incident on Friday, said the deceased “was a rioter” and added, “I don’t know if he’s a student.”
The protests erupted over a planned 50-bed Ebola quarantine facility at Laikipia Air Base near Nanyuki, which has drawn strong opposition from residents and triggered several days of demonstrations.
Although a court ordered a halt to construction, U.S. and diplomatic sources, along with flight tracking data, indicate that U.S. military aircraft have continued transporting personnel and equipment to the site following the ruling.
“We went to the police station yesterday and after being taken around for hours, the police told us that it was a tear-gas canister that killed him and not a bullet,” Muigai’s grandmother, Miriam Njoki, told Reuters by phone.
She said Muigai was a student at Thingithu Secondary School in Nanyuki and had left home to pick up a new uniform from his aunt in the nearby Likii neighborhood when he became caught up in the protest.
Opponents of the facility argue the United States is shifting the burden of treating individuals exposed to Ebola outbreaks in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda. The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has said it will not allow Ebola cases to enter the United States.
Kenyan officials have said the facility is intended for Americans exposed to the virus who do not show symptoms, although U.S. officials have not confirmed whether it will also accept Kenyan or other foreign nationals.
Protesters have also criticized Kenyan President William Ruto, who last week said his government was “doing the right thing” by allowing the facility to be built.
Security sources said at least two other people have been killed in the Nanyuki protests, underscoring the growing tensions surrounding the project and its broader geopolitical implications.
