Jacinta Anyango still keeps the phone that buzzed with an unfamiliar number last July. On the line was President William Ruto, promising justice and support after her son, 12-year-old Kennedy Onyango, was killed during the anti-tax protests in Ongata Rongai.
A year later, she says the pledge has vanished.
Anyango spoke on Sunday during an inter-denominational service at All Saints’ Cathedral, her voice breaking as she recalled that call arranged by State House aide Dennis Itumbi. “I talked to President Ruto, he assured me of justice, but it’s been 1 year and nothing,” she told the congregation.
Kennedy wasn’t demonstrating that day, she insists. The Grade 8 pupil had stepped out to borrow a revision book when bullets tore through the street. “He was 12, was a good artist, and then police bullets ended his life,” she said.
Kennedy, her third child, had been sketching a mosque he hoped to sell to help with rent. “That day before he was killed, he had started to draw a mosque and he had promised to finish the drawing before selling it to Muslims to earn money for paying rent,” Anyango recalled.
Anyango’s search for answers has pushed her from court corridors to media studios. In February, she confronted IPOA at Milimani Law Courts after the watchdog asked her to produce more evidence. “What more do they need besides my son’s body?” she asked reporters then. “I only have the postmortem report stating a bullet was the cause of death, and the grave of my son as evidence.”
On Sunday she listed fresh worries: two of her remaining children live with sickle-cell anaemia, rent arrears keep piling up, and the promised State House visit never materialised. Her only request now is prayer – plus a meeting with anyone who can reignite the stalled inquest.
Grass-roots activists say Kennedy’s case mirrors dozens of protest deaths still awaiting closure since the 2024 demonstrations. As Gen Z groups plan a memorial march on Wednesday, they’ve placed a photo of the young artist; pencil in hand, at the centre of their posters.
Whether Parliament or State House acts, one fact remains: a mother’s call has gone unanswered for twelve long months.
