The family of Sylvester Muigai Ndung’u has received the answer they had desperately hoped not to hear. Sylvester Ndung’u’s mum, Lucy Kagure, speaks after identifying his body. After two agonising days of searching for the teenager who disappeared during protests over the proposed Ebola quarantine facility in Nanyuki, the young lad was positively identified. How was Sylvester Ndung’u identified? Sylvester, a 16-year-old Form Three student at Thingithu Secondary School, was identified as the young man who was fatally shot during confrontations between protesters and police officers in Likii Village. The teenager was shot in the head as demonstrations against the controversial project entered their second week, turning the public dispute into a personal tragedy for the family, now demanding justice. The painful confirmation came at the Nanyuki Referral Hospital mortuary, where Sylvester’s body had initially been recorded as that of an unknown male. By the time his family arrived to identify him, the hope that had sustained them through two days of frantic searching had been replaced by heartbreak. As grief engulfed the mortuary, Sylvester’s mother, Lucy Kagure, struggled to understand how a son she had left safely at home hours earlier had ended up dead. “Nimezunguka hospitali zote kule general ya wanaume nikakuta mtoto wangu hayuko nikaambiwa nikuje mortuary; wanaua mtoto. Juzi walikuwa wanarusha tear gas huko kwetu ploti na kuna watoto hata wadogo. Wanatumia nguvu kuliko,” Kagure cried out. Unable to comprehend why her son had been shot in the head, Kagure questioned the circumstances surrounding his death and insisted he was not a criminal.
“Mimi nataka haki, mimi ni mama single, nalea watoto wangu wanne, saizi nimetoka shamba yangu ya wenyewe kibarua ya KSh 350 nitafutie watoto wangu. Nataka haki,” she lamented. Laikipia East police commander Daniel Kitavi confirmed the incident, saying the family had positively identified the teenager’s body. Subscribe to watch new videos What were Sylvester Muigai’s final moments before the protests? For Kagure, the tragedy was made even more painful by the ordinary circumstances that had defined her final moments with her son. On Monday, June 8, Sylvester had been sent home from Thingithu Secondary School to collect a fees balance of KSh 5,700. The following day, his mother received a call from one of her clients asking her to wash clothes and like many parents struggling to make ends meet, she could not afford to turn down the opportunity. It was the last conversation they would ever have. Before leaving home, she warned her son against going into Nanyuki town, where residents had been protesting against the planned Ebola quarantine and treatment facility. “I do casual work, including washing clothes, and when my client called, I could not decline. I told him to stay in the house as I looked for money to clear his school fees balance and left,” Kagure said. Sylvester Ndung’u was home to collect fees arrears.
At around 5.30pm, Sylvester left home and made his way to town, where demonstrators had gathered against the facility. The firstborn in a family of four children, he was known not only as a student but also as an altar boy at St Teresa Equator Catholic Church. After he failed to return that evening, Kagure initially tried to convince herself that he had gone to visit his grandmother, something she said he often did. The following day, she called her mother seeking reassurance, only for fear to take hold when the response she received was not what she had expected. “He loved his grandmother so much that when he was not at home, he was with her. When she confirmed he was not there, worry turned into panic. We only confirmed the worst when we went to the mortuary,” she said.
