BBC Exposé Shakes State as IPOA Scrambles in Damage Control

Nairobi, April 29 – In the haunting shadow of the BBC documentary, “Blood Parliament”, the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) has hurriedly released a status update on investigations into police conduct during the 2024 anti-Finance Bill demonstrations. While the statement purports to show progress, it exposes an institution caught in a cycle of delay, internal reviews, and unanswered brutality.

The BBC Africa Eye exposé aired globally on Sunday, identified security officers who fatally shot unarmed protesters outside Parliament on June 25, 2024. Through open-source analysis and real-time footage from demonstrators, the documentary reconstructed how live rounds fired by uniformed personnel killed at least three protesters as they attempted to stop the passage of the controversial tax bill.

But in a chilling move that echoes broader patterns of censorship, the BBC revealed that a scheduled private screening of the film in Nairobi this week was canceled on Monday due to pressure from the Kenyan government. The event, set for an upmarket cinema and rooftop bar, followed by a panel discussion with activists, was abruptly scrapped. “A screening of BBC Africa Eye’s Blood Parliament in Kenya was cancelled due to pressure from the authorities,” the broadcaster confirmed in a statement.

The state’s panic is understandable. The documentary not only lays bare the killings on June 25 but also puts names and faces to the bullets, with clear visual evidence of uniformed officers aiming at fleeing or kneeling protesters.

The government’s silence since the killings has been deafening. Now IPOA’s report speaks volumes, with critics saying, not with accountability, but with bureaucratic damage control, a half-hearted shuffle toward justice only forced by global shame. The documentary has reignited public anger, particularly among the youth who led the 2024 demonstrations. Social media is now flooded with calls for justice, with hashtags like #JusticeForJune25  and #BloodParliamentTruth trending.

For the families of the dead, many of whom buried their loved ones without answers or accountability, the wounds remain fresh. IPOA’s status update is being read not as a gesture of transparency, but as an effort to insulate itself from the sharp national and international criticism sparked by the documentary.

According to IPOA and human rights groups, over 60 people were killed during the crackdown on the youth-led protests across Kenya. In Nairobi, where demonstrations reached their most volatile peak, at least seven protesters’ deaths were directly linked to police actions, though activists believe the true toll was significantly higher. These were students, workers, and bystanders, young lives silenced by state-sanctioned bullets aimed not at justice but at dissent.

Among the earliest to fall was Rex Kanyike Masai, shot dead in the streets of Nairobi on June 20. His death sparked national outrage and quickly became a symbol of the brutality protesters were rallying against. Abdi Kadir, 24, was wounded during early June protests and died weeks later in the hospital on July 16. His burial the next day was a quiet affair marked by sorrow and simmering rage.

Evans Kiratu met a similarly tragic end after being struck by a tear gas canister, ordinarily used for crowd dispersal but deadly in this instance. University student Eric Shieni, 26, who lived in South B and was set to graduate in September, was shot in the head while fleeing the chaos outside Parliament on June 25. He died instantly. The BBC documentary identified his shooter as a member of the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF), a revelation that raises serious legal and constitutional questions about military involvement in civilian law enforcement.

Also killed that day was David Chege, a 39-year-old freelance IT expert and graduate of JKUAT, gunned down just outside Parliament buildings. BBC’s open-source investigation points to a masked officer, whose identity remains concealed, as the likely shooter of both Chege and 25-year-old Erickson Mutisya, another protester who died in the same location. Further fatalities included Beasley Kamau, Ibrahim Kamau, and Kennedy Onyango.

Despite the public documentation of these names by media and civil society groups, including those mentioned in the documentary, IPOA’s latest status update makes little mention of them. Where it does, the cases are vaguely marked as “under active investigation,” with no clear timeline or prosecutorial commitment. Particularly alarming is the case of Job Kaboi, an officer identified in the documentary from Nairobi’s Central Police Station, accused of inciting colleagues to use lethal force during the protests.

In Eldoret, IPOA listed Francis Kipkorir Sawe and Credo Oyaro among those shot on June 25. While the authority claims investigations into their deaths are complete, the cases remain under internal review. In Kisumu, the killings of Benson Ouma, Kevin Ochieng, Brian Odhiambo, and Josphat Kingi are all trapped in procedural limbo, with little sign of accountability. In Nakuru, three young men, Austin Onyisa, Michael Kihunga, and Kevin Madanga Kagon, were all shot in Section 58, while in Kakamega, five people were killed by gunfire, including Caroline Shiramba and Patrick Ameyo. IPOA says investigations are “ongoing,” with no clarity on progress.

From Meru to Migori, Nyeri to Mombasa, the pattern repeats: lives were lost, cases are opened, files are delayed, investigations are active, and justice is not delivered.

The mounting evidence has prompted renewed demands for accountability. During a press briefing on Monday, one activist summed up the collective frustration: “We are not asking for miracles. We are asking for justice, for names to become cases, and for cases to become convictions.”

IPOA, established in 2011 to hold police accountable, has long faced criticism for its inaction on politically sensitive cases. Its report cites 22 completed investigations, yet none have resulted in high-level convictions. Many others remain stalled in “final review” or “still under investigation” nearly a year after the protests.

This institutional inertia is not new. The unresolved 2009 murder of investigative journalist Francis Nyaruri, who exposed police corruption in Nyanza, stands as a stark example. Despite clear evidence pointing to those responsible, Nyaruri’s killers were acquitted, and crucial evidence implicating a police officer was suppressed. A key witness, who had made a chilling confession about his involvement, was never allowed to testify due to police interference. Two investigating officers revealed that they received death threats from the then-Nyamira commanding officer, which further derailed the case.

This failure to secure justice for Nyaruri highlights the broader dysfunction within Kenya’s police oversight systems, which have long been marred by institutional failures and blatant inaction. The Nyaruri family’s frustration culminated in a formal petition to the ODPP and IPOA in September 2022, seeking a fresh review of the case. Despite IPOA acknowledging the request in November 2022 and referring the matter for investigation, there has been no evidence of any meaningful action taken. This ongoing neglect highlights the systemic barriers to accountability and justice, which have allowed such injustices to persist unchallenged. More recently, journalists assaulted in the 2023–2024 protests have seen no redress, which

Critics argue that IPOA has become a toothless agency, offering weak statements to deflect public outrage while shielding perpetrators from consequences. The BBC’s documentary, which has rattled the government, has forced the institution into the spotlight, but for many, the response has been too little, too late. “The state is more interested in controlling the narrative than serving justice,” said a Nairobi-based human rights activist on his X account. “You don’t cancel a film screening unless you know the truth in it will cause discomfort at the top.”

IPOA’s mandate restricts it to investigations and recommendations, leaving prosecution to the ODPP. Yet critics argue that IPOA has failed even within its narrow scope, rarely pursuing high-profile cases with urgency and often folding under political pressure. In its long-awaited update, released only a day after the BBC’s revelations, IPOA listed dozens of individuals killed during the June–July 2024 demonstrations. Yet few cases have reached the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP).