Chaos as varsity students stage street protests

“The tension has been building up over time and the killing of Ogato was just a trigger. This is not just about the student,” said Clive Ombane, a brother to the slain student and a former student leader at UoN.

The students later held up traffic on the junction of Uhuru Highway and University Way, commandeered a matatu and several trucks and stoned a Mercedes Benz vehicle bearing GK registration plates.

Officers guarding a van transporting money on Loita Street were forced to fire in the air to scare way students who had approached the vehicle.

Some students looted Nakumatt Lifestyle supermarket, Kengeles Restaurant on Koinange Street while their colleagues held up traffic on Uhuru Highway.

Businesses along the roads the students used were hurriedly shut as their owners feared a repeat of the looting common in students’ protests in the 1990s.

SONU vice chairman Joseph Opiyo told the Nation that he had received a message from a strange number on Monday night warning him not to lead students in yesterday’s protest.

The message had warned him to 'dig himself a grave before he takes to the street.’

“We are aware you get money from NGOs” the message ended. Mr Opiyo said Mars Group, an NGO associated with former Transparency International head Mwalimu Mati, had given them the t-shirts.