Parents of Maseno University student shot dead during Azimio protests speak out

The parents of William Mayange, the third-year Maseno University student who was allegedly shot dead by police during the nationwide Azimio la Umoja One Kenya protests on Monday, have opened up about their son's untimely demise.

Speaking to journalists at the Coptic Mission Hospital morgue in Maseno on Tuesday, the deceased's parents, Everlyne Miruka and Joash Bang'i Mayange, noted that the news of their son's passing took them by surprise.

Miruka says that following the shooting, she received word that her son had been hospitalised at the aforesaid facility but was not aware that he was already dead as she hurriedly made her way there.

"I was told that my son was at the hospital but they lied and told me that he was not dead. When I arrived that's when I was informed that my first-born son was no more. He was not a bandit," she said while fighting back tears.

"I am aggrieved; I don't know what my son did to deserve such a fate.  He was killed on the streets by policemen; he was just 21 years-old."

Miruka added that she last spoke to her son on Monday, outside Maseno University, when she dropped off a few supplies for him.

"That was the last time I spoke to him and now I have lost my first-born son who I was hoping would become somebody in future. He wanted to be a teacher and he was set to graduate next year but he is no more," she said.

On his part, the deceased's father added that he arrived at the morgue and identified his son's body but he had yet to come to terms with his unexpected death.

"Sina mengi ya kusema ni huzuni tu. We are still in shock and we don't know how we will proceed from here. We got word that police shot him dead but we did not witness that for ourselves," said Joash, who works as a teacher at Birongo Secondary School.