‘My Son Was Killed Here’: Grief Returns to Parliament as Kenya Marks Two Years Since the Gen Z Massacre

‘People die every day.’Two years later, the voices of the dead still echo outside Parliament.

“People were killed, but we sympathised and moved on. People die every day.”

Those words, uttered by Mandera North MP Bashir Abdullahi in Parliament in the aftermath of the 2024 Gen Z protests, have refused to die.

For the families who buried children, brothers, and daughters after the storming of Parliament on June 25, 2024, it remains less a political statement than a painful reminder of how quickly national outrage can fade.

Two years later, the memories returned with hundreds of Kenyans who poured back into the streets on Thursday to commemorate the second anniversary of one of the country’s darkest democratic chapters.

Roads leading to Parliament were sealed off with coils of razor wire. Armoured police vehicles lined the precincts.

Anti-riot officers stood shoulder to shoulder where, two years earlier, young protesters had breached Parliament in fury over the Finance Bill.

The fortification of Parliament was more than a security operation. It was a powerful image of a nation still haunted by the ghosts of June 25.

Yet perhaps no image from those days captured the human cost more starkly than an interview President William Ruto gave days after the protests.

During the televised interview, journalist Linus Kaikai asked the president about Kennedy Onyango, the 12-year-old boy shot outside Parliament.

“This boy, Mr President, a 12-year-old boy, took eight bullets into his body. What would you tell the mother of that boy?”

The president responded:

“That boy is alive, right?”

Silence followed.

Then, from off camera, journalist Joe Ageyo quietly corrected him.

“Kennedy Onyango died.”

The moment became one of the defining exchanges after the protests, a collision between political power and personal tragedy.

A Child Caught In A Nation’s Convulsion

Kennedy Onyango had not become a symbol by choice.

The 12-year-old was among the youngest victims killed in Ongata Rongai, Kajiado County, during the demonstrations that exploded after Parliament passed the controversial Finance Bill 2024 despite widespread public opposition.

Two years later, those questions remain largely unanswered.

On Thursday, his mother, Jacinta Onyango, returned to the place where her son’s life ended.

Standing alongside opposition leaders James Orengo, Martha Karua, Eugene Wamalwa, former Chief Justice David Maraga and human rights activists Boniface Mwangi and Hussein Khalid, she spoke not with anger but with exhaustion.

“Kennedy Onyango was 12 years old. All I want is justice, Mr President. I want to know the police officer who shot my son; then I can forgive him.”

Her words lingered.

“My son was killed, and all I have is a day like today to remember him. Please don’t teargas us as you teargassed us last year.”

Later, during another briefing, she delivered another painful revelation.

Despite government announcements about compensation running into millions of shillings for some victims, she said she had received nothing.

“This is a lying government,” she declared.

The Train of Unfinished Grief

She was not alone.

Around her stood parents whose lives have become frozen in June 2024.

Phoebe Akumu, mother of 16-year-old Kevin Odhiambo, said her son would now have been 18.

Instead, birthdays have become memorials.

“I’m asking the government to allow us to go lay wreaths outside Parliament where he was killed.”

Nearby stood the mother of Erickson Kyalo Mutisya.

“My son was killed outside Parliament on a day like today,” she said.

“We are here to seek justice. “I came to honour my son, and I asked the government to allow us to lay wreaths outside Parliament.”

Another mother, Edith Wanjiku Kamau, carried the same burden.

Her son, Ibrahim Kamau Wanjiku, was only 19 when he was killed outside Parliament.

“All I ask the government is to bring the officers who killed our children to book. We have been waiting for justice since 2024.”

Then came perhaps the most haunting testimony.

Mary Gititia has never buried her son. Dennis Chege disappeared during the protests.

He has never returned.

“My son disappeared since June 2024 and has never been found,” she said.

“Where are the children who disappeared since then? It is very exhausting and painful.”

For families like hers, there are no graves to visit, only unanswered questions.

Justice Beyond Compensation

Among those addressing the gathering was Gillian Munyao, mother of Rex Masai, whose killing became one of the earliest flashpoints of the Gen Z movement.

Her message cut through the political speeches.

Mother to Erickson, Caroline Mutisya – We just want justice from the government. Above all accountability. I came to honour my son, my son was killed outside parliament.#K24Updates pic.twitter.com/AGX9Un7bNQ

— K24TV (@K24Tv) June 25, 2026

“Compensation cannot replace accountability. Arrest the killer cops.”

It was a reminder that, for tens of families, money is not justice.

Justice has a name. Justice has a badge number. Justice has a trigger.

And until those responsible are identified and prosecuted, many believe the country’s wounds will remain open.

Kenya Remembers

The second anniversary unfolded under extraordinary security.

Barbed wire stretched across roads leading to Parliament. Water cannon trucks and armoured carriers stood ready.

Businesses shut their doors. Helicopters circled overhead as thousands marched through Nairobi and other towns carrying Kenyan flags, flowers and portraits of those who never returned home.

The contrast was striking.

Where Parliament once appeared vulnerable to an angry generation, it now resembled a fortress.

Outside those barricades, however, another force gathered, memory.

The demonstrations were no longer solely about the Finance Bill.

Wreaths draped over razor wire outside Parliament during the second anniversary of the Gen Z protests. Photo/courtesy

They have transformed into a broader movement encompassing accountability, police brutality, enforced disappearances, governance, and the cost that ordinary citizens bear for advocating change.

The chants of 2024 had become the questions of 2026.

Who gave the orders? Who pulled the trigger?

Who has been held accountable?

More Than A Date

June 25 has become more than a date. It has become part of Kenya’s democratic vocabulary.

The parents who assembled outside Parliament were asking for something profoundly simple.

Recognition. Truth. Justice.

Their children remain forever young in family photographs.

Kennedy Onyango will always be 12.

Kevin Odhiambo will forever be 16.

Ibrahim Kamau will remain 19.

READ ALSO: Phones, Spyware and Fear: Inside Ruto’s Expanding Surveillance Machine after Gen Z Protests

Dennis Chege remains missing.

For politicians, anniversaries often mark another news cycle.

For parents, anniversaries reopen wounds that never healed.

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