Millions of funds from Kenyans sent to families of deceased and injured protesters

The funds were channeled through an M-Changa account set up by social activist Hanifa Adan, who has since sent Ksh.2 million to go towards the funeral expenses of Rex and Evans, who were reportedly felled by police during the demonstrations.

Updating her followers and Kenyans in general on Friday morning, Hanifa took to her X account to share screenshots of the transactions - the families of both Rex Kanyike and Evans Kiratu both received Ksh.1 million each all meant for the two fallen protesters' funerals.

Earlier, Citizen Digital had reported that, in less than 8 hours, Kenyans managed to collectively fundraise over Ksh.2 million aimed at covering the two men's burial expenses.

The two young men succumbed to injuries sustained during the Thursday Occupy Parliament protests - Rex was shot and killed by police as the protests entered the night stretch while Evans was hit by a teargas canister, dying a few days later.

Led by X personality Kimuzi, and in collaboration with Osama Otero and Hanifa Adan, a team quickly came together to organise a fundraiser for both Rex and Evans, quickly setting up an M-CHANGA fundraiser early Sunday morning.

On X, Hanifa wrote: "Hello guys. Remember Rex and Evan’s? The first victims of this cruel regime. We have sent one million each to their families that’s their mum. The remaining will be sent to the family of Ian, who was shot three times on the back and won’t be able to walk again. I feel so relieved that they got this. Thank you so much guys."

And on Wednesday, Hanifa kicked off yet another fundraiser after the murderous events at the #TotalShutdown protests which went down on Tuesday and saw police indiscriminately fire live bullets into protesters who had breached parliament.

The fundraiser, dubbed 'Care For The Injured' quickly gained momentum, clocking over 20 million shillings in less than 20 hours. It has now collected a staggering Ksh. 24 million, less than two days later.

The activist has now revealed that the process to pay the hospital bills for all the affected parties had already kicked off, adding that she and her team were working directly with M-Changa to pay off huge bills for all injured protesters across the country.

She shared that the first payment from the 'Care for the Injured' kitty was made to Nairobi West Hospital - a bill totalling Ksh.629,000.

"The first payment was paid to Nairobi West Hospital. Mchanga isn’t charging for the bank-to-bank payments and Pauline had been extremely helpful I’m so relieved," she wrote.

She added, "This is how it works with mchanga paying hospitals bills directly to the hospital. I upload the invoices and account details of the hospitals and they send to the hospitals. They will generate a PDF for all transactions."

Media houses reported that at least five people were shot dead and around 31 were injured during Tuesday’s protests. 

Of these, 13 were hit with live bullets, four with rubber bullets, and three with launcher canisters, according to a joint statement by Amnesty International Kenya, the Kenya Medical Association, the Law Society of Kenya, and Police Reforms Working Group Kenya. 

Adding to the tally from Tuesday, eleven more people are nursing their wounds at the Homa Bay County Teaching and Referral Hospital after sustaining injuries during Thursday demonstrations.

The injured were nine people who sustained bullet wounds while two others were injured in a stampede.