Seven-year-old Geoffrey Mutinda lies on a cold slab in City Mortuary, his head shattered by a bullet.

His parents, relatives, his neighbours, and the nation are shocked, mourning and angry over the shooting in Pipeline, Embakasi, on Tuesday.

"They (police) were shooting anywhere at anyone and even threw tear gas into buildings, so bad," Peter Mutuku, 38, Geoffrey’s father told the Star in his 10-foot square room.

Adding:

"What I want is justice. My son was the reason why I hustled everyday but he has been taken away from me. Why? Why?"

Today people are mourning not only Geoffrey, but all other innocent people killed and wounded during political demonstrations quelled by police.

The nation is reflecting on a trigger-happy culture.

Geoffrey, a fun-loving Remedy Academy pupil, was in Nairobi to visit his father who works in the capital.

He loved to watch TV cartoons. In fact, it was his love of cartoons that sent him to his auntie’s house in sprawling Embakasi in search of fun.

His own parents are too poor to own a TV set.

He and other children were playing on the first-floor balcony of a block of flats.

What they didn’t know was that a contingent of riot police had been deployed to that neighbourhood to break up a planned NASA rally at nearby Jacaranda Grounds.

Initial reports indicated Geoffrey was shot by people suspected to be AP officers from a nearby post.

His killers were said to be riding a motorbike.

Yesterday, Nairobi Police Chief Japhet Koome denied police had shot Geoffrey and said the child could have been killed by a criminal gang.

He said there was no police camp in Embakasi known as Taasia AP camp.

He said there were no operations in that area only operations to deal with rioters around Jacaranda Grounds and environs in Donholm, 5km away.

Geoffrey's father spoke in his dingy 10-foot-square tenement room on the fifth floor. It’s divided in two by a tattered curtain. Mutuku is jobless. Geoffrey’s mother Elizabeth Katungwa is a banana vendor.

Neighbours, mostly factory hands, gathered to console the family.

"He was my hope but he is now gone," Elizabeth said through tears. Her dreams of seeing her son join class three in January have been shattered.

"I was told they were playing in the balcony when someone shot him in the head," Elizabeth said with a blank stare.. She said three police officers in civilian who were riding a motorbike, stopped near the building and fired indiscriminately, killing her son and injuring his pregnant aunt. The bullet that killed Geoffrey, going through his head, also struck his pregnant aunt, who is due in three weeks. She has been admitted to Machakos Level Five Hospital.

Geoffrey’s little sister looks through an old family album, pointing out photos of her brother. Terrified neighbours spoke in low tones as a battery of journalists visited the family.

Geoffrey’s father said it took more than 10 hours for police to move the body from the scene as crowds surged.

One resident said, "Some were in uniform while others were not. The one who shot Geoffrey was on a motorbike ahead of uniformed police officers."He declined to be named.

In the nearby Soweto estate, a poor neighbourhood, residents painted a picture of police terror throughout Tuesday when President Uhuru Kenyatta was being sworn in at Kasarani while the opposition had planned a rally in Embakasi.

They said police virtually took over the dusty estate in a major lockdown, ordering residents remain indoors.

"The police were all over lobbying teargas and shooting at any small group of people who tried to come out," vegetable vendor Anastasia Mwende said.

"Even kids have been affected by teargas because we remained locked in our houses the whole day and Tuesday night," said Antony Oluoch, 27, a bodaboda operator.

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He said a contingent of anti-riot police officers sealed off Jacaranda grounds but again pushed youths into the estates beating up anyone on sight.

"We had to hide even our motorbikes because we feared police could destroy them," he said.

When the Star visited Eastlands, residents were yet to come to terms with the police brutality meted on harmless women and kids throughout Tuesday as President  Uhuru Kenyatta was being sworn in at Kasarani stadium.

Police are investigating the matter. So is the Independent Police Oversight Authority, which condemned the killing and dispatched a rapid-response unit.

It is probing the deaths of Geoffrey and another person near Jacaranda grounds, as well as injuries.

They occurred on the day police were told nothing must disrupt or distract from President Uhuru Kenyatta’s inauguration. A postmortem will be performed today to determine, among other things, the nature and caliber of bullet, the gun and the distance between attacker and victim.

Geoffrey is now part of the grim national statistics illustrating how the Kenyan police have earned their reputation for recklessness, brutality and impunity.

By one international ranking, they are the world’s third worst.

His is the fourth death of an innocent young person in four months during anti-government demonstrations presumably at the hands of police.

On October 18 in Kisumu, Michael Okoth, 18, had gone to buy ice cream. He was far from the demonstrators when he was shot in the neck by police, witnesses said.

Police then shooed everyone away, took out a knife and sliced the bullet form his neck, pocketing the bullet. Then they carted off the body, witnesses said.

On August 15, Baby Samantha Pendo’s head was smashed with a blunt object when police burst into her Kisumu home in Nyalenda B.

They were dispersing protesters. On August 12, seven-year old Stephane Moraa was shot dead by police as she played on the balcony of their rental house in Mathare North, Nairobi.

Source: Star/James Mbaka/Luke Awich