One year ago, Kenyan police opened fire on crowds protesting a deeply unpopular tax bill. Today, mothers and fathers returned to the same streets, not with stones, but with flowers. They placed them on the barbed wire that still lines the route to parliament.
The anniversary of the so-called 'Nairobi Spring' was marked not by fresh violence, but by a quiet, determined grief. Dozens gathered at the spot where medics say 23 people died, a figure the state disputes. They knelt, laid bouquets, and whispered names.
'We are not here to fight,' said Grace Otieno, whose 19-year-old son was shot. 'We are here to remember. And to say we have not forgotten.
' Yet the anger remains. Under the surface it simmers. The tax bill was eventually withdrawn, but the cost of living crisis it was meant to address has only deepened.
Wages have not kept pace. Jobs are scarce. And for many, the promise of change feels as sharp and unyielding as the wire they now decorate with petals.
