A 13-year-old Kenyan boy has died after being shot by police while standing out on the balcony of his family’s home past a coronavirus curfew. Yasin Hussein Moy died after being shot by what Kenyan police are calling a “stray bullet” as he and his siblings rushed upstairs to the balcony of their home after gunfire broke out in their neighborhood. The gunfire was the result of police enforcing the newly enacted 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew, which has resulted in a string of violence.
Gunfire broke out just after 7 p.m., with Moy’s mother ordering her children to go upstairs. Moy’s 19-year-old sister told the Associated Press in a report published on March 31 that they “thought it was safer,” though just 20 minutes after curfew fell, the children noticed a targeting light that was followed by a gunshot. All but Moy scattered, who “just stood there, stunned,” according to his sister.
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“I could see police aiming at the building,” Hadijah Mamo, a neighbor, said of the incident, adding that she heard gunfire and saw tear gas. Minutes later, she “heard people screaming that the boy had been shot.”
As Moy’s mother rushed to the balcony, she found her son bleeding from the abdomen. He told her, “look mum, it hit me.” He died just hours later. Days later, the 13-year-old was mourned by his family on the outskirts of Nairobi, his body carried through the street to the cemetery, where he was buried by hand.
Kenya’s police inspector general has since ordered an investigation into the death by what he called “stray bullet.” The investigation will include a forensic analysis of all firearms held by officers at the scene. In a tweet, the police wrote, “our sincere condolences to the family.”
Moy’s death came just after Kenya on Friday began imposing a 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew amid the coronavirus pandemic. In the days that have followed, there has been an uptick in violence, with Kenyan police being accused of abusing their powers.
“They come in screaming and beating us like cows, and we are law-abiding citizens,” Moy’s father said.
The Associated Press reports that authorities have been captured on video hitting people with batons and that Moy’s is not the only curfew-related death. Hamisi Juma Mbega, a motorcycle taxi driver, was beaten to death after breaching the curfew to take a pregnant woman to hospital in Mombasa. The Independent Policing Oversight Authority, a civilian body established by parliament, is also looking into a third death possibly linked to police brutality amid the curfew.
