Kenyan police tear gas primary school children protesting removal of playground

Dressed in green primary school sweaters, children as young as 7 chanted alongside teachers, parents and activists on Monday to protest the sale of a school playground in Nairobi. The protest turned violent when police fired tear gas into the crowd. At least 10 students were taken to the hospital for injuries including tear-gas exposure, said a member of Kenya’s parliament.

Students from Langata primary school in Nairobi run past riot police. (Thomas Mukoya/Reuters)

Before Monday’s standoff, teachers and students at the Langata Road Primary School returned from Christmas break to find the school’s play area fenced off. The playground was allegedly part of a land grab by a private developer who a Kenyan human rights activist said is also a powerful politician, according to the Associated Press. Boniface Mwangi said: “The governor, the senator and other government officials are all scared of the politician, they cannot do anything to stop the playground from the being taken.”

The school, which serves about 1,000 students aged between 3 and 14, is run by the Nairobi city council, reported the BBC. Kenneth Okoth, a member of parliament, told Bloomberg the school has owned the land since 1972, but that the land was acquired by a “group of professional land grabbers.”

School children push the newly erected fence. (Dai Kurokawa/European Pressphoto Agency)

Left: A protester clashes with a police. Right: A police officer reacts as his colleague tries to calm him down. (Photos by Dai Kurokawa/European Pressphoto Agency)

On Monday, the protesters knocked down the newly built wall, but were met with clouds of tear gas. Agence France-Presse reported 40 armed officers wielding batons pushed back a crowd of about 100 onto a pedestrian bridge.

Dozens of children were exposed to the tear gas. Many screamed as they sought water to wash their eyes.

Protesters pushed on to a bridge. (Tony Karumba/AFP/Getty Images)

The police officer in charge at the scene was suspended, according to acting police chief Samuel Arachi. Arachi told the AP that five people were arrested during the incident — three for vandalism and two for incitement. Arachi said that, in an incident such as this, tear gas is not used because the protests were not violent. Some reports said protesters threw rocks.

Left: Activist Boniface Mwangi, center, and schoolchildren. (Dai Kurokawa/European Pressphoto Agency)
Right: An injured riot policeman. (Thomas Mukoya/Reuters)

AFP reported senior police officer Mwangi Kuria told Kenya’s Daily Nation newspaper that the police were deployed to “safeguard the property.”

But why would the police come to a school equipped automatic weapons, dogs, and tear gas? Raila Odinga, an opposition leader, told the AP: “This is brutality beyond words and greed beyond description. It is difficult to believe that police can actually deploy against primary school children and lob tear gas at them to defend a land grabber. This image of a nation determined to steal forcefully from its own children cannot be what we aspire to. It cannot be the legacy we want to bequeath the children.”

The incident set off an outcry from social media under the hashtag “#OccupyPlayGround.”

Students from Langata primary school hold placards. (Thomas Mukoya/Reuters)