Kenyan cops shoot 13-year-old boy dead as he played on the balcony of his home 20 minutes after coronavirus curfew came into force
- Yasin Moyo was shot in the stomach while on the balcony of his home in Nairobi
- 13-year-old rushed to hospital Monday night but pronounced dead early Tuesday
- Kenya’s top prosecutor ordered an investigation into police accused of killing
- He was shot at 7.20pm, 20 minutes after coronavirus curfew comes into effect
- Coronavirus symptoms: what are they and should you see a doctor?
Police in Kenya have shot a 13-year-old boy dead as he played on the balcony of his home 20 minutes after a nationwide coronavirus curfew came into effect.
Yasin Moyo was shot in the stomach at his family home in the slum of Kiamaiko, on the outskirts of Nairobi, around 7.20pm Monday, human rights workers said.
He was rushed to hospital but died from his wounds early Tuesday. It comes amid a raft of complaints about Kenyan police brutality since a night-time curfew was declared last week.
Kenyan police have been accused of shooting 13-yer-old boy Yasin Moyo dead in the capital Nairobi on Monday night, 20 minutes after a coronavirus curfew came into effect (file image)
Amnesty Kenya, a branch of Amnesty International, posted about the death on Twitter and demanded an investigation into the killing.
Kenya’s director of prosecutions has now ordered an investigation into the death, which he said was caused by ‘a stray bullet’.
He did not say what the police officers involved had been trying to shoot at.
Kenya, which has only confirmed 50 coronavirus cases and one death amid a shortage of test kits, imposed a countrywide curfew on Friday last week to try and control the spread.
Residents are forbidden from leaving their home between 7pm and 6am, and advised not to venture out at other times.
Since then videos have proliferated on social media showing police using whips, truncheons and dogs to attack people they accused of violating the curfew.
Kenya has reported just 50 cases of coronavirus, but there are fears the infection is much more widespread due to a lack of testing (pictured, a street in Nairobi is disinfected)
The country has also brought in strict social distancing measures in an attempt to slow the spread of the virus, which has overwhelmed heath services in China, Europe and the US
Investigators are already probing the death of Hamisi Juma Idd, a motorbike taxi driver who was allegedly beaten to death by officers in Nairobi last week.
Idd’s relatives say he had just finished dropping off a pregnant woman at a nearby hospital, putting him in breach of the 7pm curfew, when officers attacked him.
He subsequently died of his injuries.
Africa’s confirmed coronavirus cases are now above 5,000.
The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention says 47 of the continent’s 54 countries now have cases, with 5,255 in all, and 173 deaths.
But shortages of testing materials mean the real number of cases could be higher.
South Africa’s president on Monday night announced that the country, which has the most cases in Africa with 1,326, will launch a mass screening and testing programme with about 10,000 field workers going door-to-door.
Uganda and Botswana are the latest countries to impose a lockdown in an effort to prevent the virus’s spread.