Blogger Anwar Saddat has raised fresh political questions around an empowerment event attended by Youth Affairs Principal Secretary Fikirini Jacobs after a youth organiser, Cecil Ouma, was shot dead in Nairobi.
The incident has quickly moved beyond a normal security file. It now sits at the centre of a bigger political debate on youth mobilisation, government-linked empowerment events, handouts, VIP security and the value placed on young people who turn up to praise leaders.
According to The Standard, Ouma, 28, was among youths who had been mobilised to attend a youth empowerment forum at Kariokor, Nairobi, attended by PS Fikirini. Witnesses quoted by the publication said about 60 youths were present, and that a Sh10,000 token given after the event was rejected as too little.
Saddat questions payout
In his post, Saddat tied the tragedy to the politics of youth mobilisation and small handouts.
“Kijana Cecil was asked to gather Tutam Youths for an empowerment event for PS Fikirini Jacobs.
He mobilized about 60 youths. The PS came, took photos for his propaganda and then handed kshs 10,000 for Ouma to share with the youths.
Each youth was to get around kshs 167, compensation for whole day work of singing Tutam and Praising the government.
The youths refused, saying that money wasn’t enough for the whole day’s work. They forced Ouma to go back to the PS and ask for more money.
Ouma entered the PS car, but never made back out alive. The bodyguard of the PS shot him.
Dying for kshs 167 after shouting Tutam for a whole day is very sad. May Cecil rest in peace,” Saddat wrote.
His remarks cut into a sensitive political nerve. Across Kenya, youth empowerment forums have increasingly become political theatres where young people are mobilised, photographed, addressed, praised, promised and sometimes sent away with token payments.
In this case, Saddat’s argument is that the death of Ouma should not be reduced to a security incident alone. To him, it raises a deeper question about how power treats jobless youth who are useful during mobilisation but disposable once the cameras leave.
Witnesses speak
The Standard reported that a witness, Lawrence Agolla, said the youths sent Ouma to the PS’s car after the event when the PS asked for their leader so that he could be given money. The witness said Ouma returned with Sh10,000, which the youths rejected, before he was sent back to return the money.
The same report stated that Ouma was later rushed to Park Road Nursing Home, where he was pronounced dead on arrival. His brother, Jeff Otieno, told the publication that Ouma had been shot on the left side of the chest.
A separate report by KahawaTungu said police indicated that a group of about 100 youths surrounded the PS’s official vehicle demanding handouts, and that the vehicle’s rear windscreen was smashed during the chaos. The report further stated that detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations in Starehe had taken over investigations.
Political accountability
That police version now gives investigators a duty to answer the central question clearly: who fired the bullet that killed Ouma, and under what circumstances?
For the government, the matter is politically explosive. PS Fikirini serves in the youth docket, a ministry expected to speak to the frustrations of unemployed and underemployed young Kenyans. A youth dying after an empowerment event linked to that office is therefore not just tragic. It is symbolically damaging.
It also invites scrutiny of VIP security conduct. Bodyguards are assigned to protect public officers, not to create fear among citizens attending government-linked events. Where a shooting happens, the public deserves a clean chain of accountability, from the officer involved to the office whose security detail was present.
By the time of publication, PS Fikirini had not issued a public response to Saddat’s remarks. The story will be updated if and when a response is received.