Police boss suspended over teargas attack on children

Lang’ata OCPD Mwangi Kuria has been suspended after officers under his division tear-gassed primary school pupils protesting an alleged grabbing of their playground.

One child was taken to hospital following the scuffles between the police, pupils and activists over the two-acre piece of land claimed by Airport View Housing Limited and Lang’ata Road Primary School.

The OCPD denied there was any tear-gassing of children and defended the actions of the officers saying the protestors had not notified the authorities of the planned demonstration.

“We are here to safeguard the property because these people (protesters) have not followed procedure. This is disputed land but they should not use the children,” he said.

The suspension followed uproar over the assault on the children with opposition chief Raila Odinga terming it as ‘brutality beyond words’. Tear gas can have serious side effects, including causing miscarriages and death. There are numerous instances in which adults have been blinded, maimed or killed due to police use of teargas.

“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,” he said. “I stand with the parents, pupils and teachers of this school over this land. At the very least, I am prepared to give them the benefit of doubt that they own the land.”

“Shame on the government for assaulting children with tear gas to protect the corrupt,” tweeted former Gichugu MP Martha Karua.

The pupils who resumed classes yesterday after the end of the teachers’ strike brought down one side of the wall.

Land Secretary Charity Ngilu said that from what she knows, the land belongs to the school adding that they want to find out who took over the land.

NLC chairman Mohammed Swazuri said that preliminary investigations show that the land belongs to the school. The Commission however will hold sittings February 9 to review ownership documents by the two parties.

Yesterday, Mr Swazuri said that the two pieces of land were amalgamated in 1974 and the school issued with an allotment letter in 1975.

"There is no way a person could have allocated the land in 1989 and issued it with the allotment letter in 1994. The documents to that effect were fake,” he said.

Airport View, however, claims to hold a title for the land and has moved to court seeking a permanent injunction restraining the Nairobi County government from interfering with the piece of land.

The company says that the county approved the construction of the perimeter wall in December last year but it remains unclear who in City Hall approved the construction. Most of the 205 primary schools in Nairobi have no titles and some have lost part of their land to grabbers.

Previously, Governor Evans Kidero has promised imminent action to take back the excised lands but the process which is supposed to be undertaken together with NLC is yet to commence.

This is the latest of alleged high-profile land-grabbing cases in the last few months with others including the 500,000 acres in Lamu and 134 acres in Karen.