(18 Jun 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Murang’a, Kenya – 18 June 2025
1. Various of Susan Njeri, 44, Boniface Kariuki’s mother, looking at her son’s childhood photos
++PARTIALLY COVERED++
2. SOUNDBITE (Kikuyu) Susan Njeri, Boniface Kariuki’s mother:
"If they saw him with a stone or baton, it would make sense to shoot him. But it all doesn’t make sense. It was not a confrontation; he was just hustling. The police officer thought he had killed him ”
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Nairobi, Kenya – 18 June 2025
3. Cutaway of news conference
4. SOUNDBITE (Swahili) Jonah Kariuki, father to Boniface who was shot in the head by police:
"I would say that those police officers need to take responsibility because they also have children and the person they hurt is somebody’s child. It is someone who has hustled before they reached where they are. He has gone to school and gone through a lot and in our work, which is hawking sometimes you get hurt. He would stay at home for two weeks and I usually took care of him. So I feel a lot of pain and that police officer has committed a crime and stern action should be taken against him."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Murang’a, Kenya – 18 June 2025
5. Susan Njeri, wiping her face, looking at her son’s childhood photos
STORYLINE:
The family of a Kenyan civilian who was shot by police during the latest protests over the alleged killing of a blogger in police custody on Wednesday demanded accountability for the violence.
The 22-year-old Boniface Kariuki, a hawker like his father, was holding a packet of face masks and is believed to have been caught up in a confrontation with two officers in Nairobi as hundreds of protesters clashed with police.
One officer, who had concealed his face with a mask, shot him at close range in the head as he walked away.
Tuesday’s protests in the capital followed tensions over the death of the blogger, Albert Ojwang, who was found dead while in custody at the Central Police Station.
Ojwang was arrested on June 6 in western Kenya for what police called publishing “false information” about a top police official on social media.
Police attributed his death to him “hitting his head against the cell wall,” but activists have questioned the cause of death.
Kariuki’s family told journalists that their only son remained under intensive care after he underwent surgery on Tuesday night.
The hospital’s spokesperson on Wednesday said injuries included gunshot wounds and that seven people were still hospitalized.
At the family’s home in Murang’a County, in the highlands of central Kenya, neighbors spoke of nervousness about letting their children travel to Nairobi in search of work due to rising cases of police brutality.
Kariuki’s mother, Susan Njeri, told The Associated Press that she last spoke to her son on Sunday, urging him to be safe during the planned protests.
“If they saw him with a stone or a baton, it would make sense to shoot him," she said. "But none of this makes sense. It was not a confrontation, he was just hustling.”
Police in a statement expressed concern and said that two officers, Klinzy Barasa and Duncan Kiprono, had been arrested and were being processed by detectives for "further action."
The judiciary in a statement on Wednesday said it was committed to “uphold justice” in all cases including those involving alleged police brutality.
Kenya has a history of police brutality, and President William Ruto previously vowed to end it, along with extrajudicial killings.
Keziah Njeri, Boniface Kariuki’s grandmother, called on the president to uphold this promise.
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