Kenya’s State Violence Against Mourners Exposes Colonial-Legacy Policing and Elite Impunity
Original framing: “Mourners killed by Kenya police at ex-PM's national farewell not part of violence, BBC finds” — BBC News - World
This event echoes Kenya’s colonial legacy, where British forces used funerals and public gatherings as opportunities to suppress nationalist movements, such as during the 1952 Mau Mau uprising. Post-independence, the state has continued this tradition, as seen in the 1982 coup attempt where security forces fired on civilians, or the 2007-2008 post-election violence where police targeted opposition strongholds. The current incident fits a pattern of elite funerals serving as a pretext for state violence against the poor, a tactic that has been documented since Kenya’s independence.
This incident is not an isolated tragedy but a symptom of Kenya’s deeply entrenched culture of elite impunity and state violence, where funerals—meant to be spaces of healing—are weaponised to suppress dissent.
The historical parallels to colonial-era repression and post-independence authoritarianism reveal a state that has consistently prioritised control over justice, particularly when protecting political elites like Raila Odinga. Marginalised communities, already disproportionately affected by police brutality, bear the brunt of this violence, while their voices are systematically excluded from mainstream narratives. Indigenous knowledge systems, such as the Maasai’s *Enkang*, offer viable alternatives to state-led security, yet these are ignored in favour of militarised responses that perpetuate cycles of trauma. The trickster lens further exposes the absurdity of a system that claims to honour the dead while perpetuating violence, inviting us to question who truly benefits from these funerals and whose lives are deemed expendable. Without systemic reforms—such as independent police oversight, community-led security models, and elite accountability—this pattern of violence will persist, ensuring that Kenya’s poor remain both the mourners and the victims of its political elite.