ADVERTISEMENT A documentary just released by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) under it’s investigative African Eye series has raised quite an uproar on social media in Kenya.
The investigative piece places Kenya Police and a Kenya Defence Forces officer right at the killing of three youth during the Gen Z incursion to occupy parliament on June 25, 2024.
The BBC report narrates indepth investigations into the 2024 anti-Finance Bill protests that purportedly resulted into the deaths of 30 youth and the injury to approximately another 300.
Using reverse-search technology the documentary is made up of 5000 images and video clips that make up a composite and accurate rendition of events.
The footage, allegedly, of an officer of the Kenya Defence Forces shooting to kill a protestor Eric Shieni is particularly disconcerting.
However, critics of the British broadcaster have come out to question the aim of releasing such a documentary now that the nation is struggling to heal from the violence that rocked the country between June and July last year. The BBC is also accussed of releasing another misleading documentary earlier that tended to deny that on the night of June 27 several youth were killed in a hunt-down that took place in Nairobi’s Githurai estate, even though photos and eyewitness reports were shared on social media.
Although the accuracy of the investigative documenyary is not in question, issues have arisen as to the goal and timing.
Kenya’s former colony, Britain has always kept a shadowy interest on the affairs of the region, insisting on maintaining a military barracks at Gilgil, sixty-years after independence. The current peace brokered by the broadbased government could be in jeopardy and the British masters could show favour on a new, younger pair of hands.
As for the KDF officer, wearing a white shoulder patch, matte green helmet, tan boots, and handling a solid-stock rifle, there’s no question that he murdered the late Eric Shieni.
This unprofessional act contradicts a statement made by the president on the night of June 25 that claimed “criminal elements” infiltrated the peaceful demonstrations to kill Kenyan youth.
According to the documentary, this validates speculation that a certain powerful individual might have called in members of the military to act as executioners, once parliament was breached.
Eric Shieni was a student at the University of Nairobi and he was one among three youth killed by live bullets on the afternoon of June 25, 2024.
The brutality the disciplined forces used to quell the protests sparked widespread condemnation, with the Law Society of Kenya President Faith Odhiambo calling for accountability and justice for the victims.
President Dr. William Samoei Ruto declined to sign the 2024 Finance Bill and subsequently appeared humbled when he presented himself in X spaces meeting with the Gen Z. The president thereafter called for a multi-sectoral stakeholder engagement.
