A family is once again plunged into mourning following the tragic death of their loved one during the June 25 protests against the now-withdrawn Finance Bill, 2024.
The family of Denzel Onyango, 23, describes him as a quiet but ambitious young man who avoided conflict. The last they saw of him was in a self-recorded video during the storming of Parliament on June 25.
Onyango’s brother, Joshua Juma, recounted their conversation a day before the protests. Juma, who noted that Onyango was a quantity survey student at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, said there was no indication that his brother would participate in the 'Occupy Parliament' demonstrations.
“It was just a call like any other between an older and a younger brother,” Juma recalled, adding that Onyango's phone went off during the day of the protests.
Concerned family members in Nairobi began searching for him, visiting police stations, hospitals, and morgues, but found no trace of him.
“My uncle went to Juja Police Station and reported him missing. As was the case for many during these protests, the search extended to morgues and hospitals, but no police station confirmed his arrest,” Juma explained.
Over the weekend, the family was shocked to see a photo circulating on social media showing Onyango’s body alongside his identity documents at a quarry in Juja.
“We were devastated because I had shared a poster looking for him. We were not prepared to learn about his death through social media. The family is deeply traumatised,” said Juma.
The family is now struggling to come to terms with the loss and is preparing for a postmortem before making burial arrangements.
“As you might expect, a body recovered from water is swollen, and it’s difficult to identify any signs of torture or strangulation,” Juma said when asked about possible marks that might indicate how Onyango died.
There is speculation that Onyango may have been killed elsewhere and his body dumped at the quarry.
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