A family’s desperate two-day search for a missing teenager has ended in heartbreak after the body of 16-year-old Sylvester Muigai Ndung’u was found at the Nanyuki Referral Hospital mortuary, confirming fears that he had been killed during violent clashes between police and protesters in Nanyuki Town.
Muigai, a Form Three student at Thingithu Secondary School, had been sent home by school administrators to collect a Ksh5,700 school fee balance. His mother, Lucy Kagure, had warned him to stay away from the ongoing demonstrations against a controversial plan to establish a 50-bed Ebola quarantine facility at the Laikipia Airbase.
However, relatives say the protests had already disrupted normal movement in the town, with demonstrators occupying roads that students use to access schools. Muigai reportedly joined a crowd that had gathered in town at around 5:30 p.m. as tensions escalated.
What followed was devastating. Protesters and police officers engaged in running battles, and amid the chaos, the teenager was allegedly shot in the head and died instantly at the scene.
His family spent two agonising days checking hospital wards before being pointed to the mortuary. His mother recalled the moment with visible anguish.
“I went to the general hospital ward, and I was told he is not there. I was told to check the mortuary,” Kagure said, struggling to hold back tears.
The discovery has shattered a family that was already carrying heavy burdens. Kagure, a single mother raising four children, says Muigai was her firstborn, and she is now demanding accountability from those responsible.
“I am seeking justice. They killed my boy. I am a single mother of four,” she said.
Muigai’s death is not an isolated incident. At least three people have now been killed since the Nanyuki protests intensified, as residents continue to oppose the U.S.-backed quarantine facility they say poses serious health risks and was advanced without adequate community consultation. A High Court judge has since issued a temporary order halting construction, though reports indicate that activity at the base continued despite the ruling.
Human rights organisations have called for an independent investigation into the conduct of security officers deployed during the demonstrations, with the Kenya Human Rights Commission documenting accounts of live ammunition being used against crowds.
For Lucy Kagure, legal battles and policy debates are secondary concerns. She wants answers about who killed her son, a boy who had simply been trying to collect his school fees and found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Muigai’s family hopes those responsible will be held accountable and that his death will not be forgotten.
