NAIROBI // Kenyan police lobbed tear gas at children protesting against plans to demolish a playground at a disputed piece of land in the capital of Nairobi.
At least 10 students from Langata Road Primary School were taken to the hospital with injuries, including for tear-gas exposure to their eyes, according to Kenneth Okoth, the local member of parliament.
About 100 children and a small group of activists pushed over a newly built wall that separated playing fields and the school buildings, close to the capital Nairobi’s main domestic airport.
Most of them were between the ages of eight and 13.
Television footage showed children, some being carried away, writhing in pain, screaming and choking because of the tear-gas. Police officers later brought dogs to the playground.
Acting police chief Samuel Arachi said he had suspended the police officer who was in charge at the scene of the protest.
He said five people have been arrested; three for vandalism and two for incitement.
“We will never allow officers to use force not only on any citizen more so on children whether in a demonstration or otherwise,” he said.
Elijah Mwangi, who was in charge of the police officers at the school, said he was following orders.
The incident sparked an outcry over Twitter with the hashtag #OccupyPlayGround.
“Shame on the government for assaulting children with tear gas to protect the corrupt,” politician and former presidential hopeful Martha Karua said on Twitter.
“It is difficult to believe that police can actually deploy against primary school children and lob tear gas at them to defend a land grabber,” opposition leader Raila Odinga said in an e-mailed statement.
A senior police officer at the demonstration, Mwangi Kuria, told Kenya’s Daily Nation newspaper that officers had been deployed to “safeguard the property”.
“This is disputed land, but they should not use the children,” Mr Kuria was quoted as saying, adding that rocks had been thrown at his men.
Macharia Njeru, chairman of the Independent Policing Oversight Authority, said the incident would be investigated.
“Teargassing children is inexcusable,” he said.
Some of the children carried placards protesting the alleged land grab.
“Kenya: the land of shameless grabbers,” read one, with others pleading for government to fight corruption.
“Shame!” read another. “Grabber, you won’t live forever.”
Monday was the first school day since the wall was built during the holidays.
Nairobi, a city of more than three million people, is rapidly growing and land prices are rising at some of the fastest rates anywhere on the continent, according to real estate experts.
* Bloomberg, Agence France-Presse and Associated Press
