Parents of the late baby Samantha Pendo, who was killed in Kisumu after violence erupted following the disputed 2017 Presidential Elections were among the delegates who spoke at the launch of the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) report at Bomas of Kenya, Nairobi.
Lensa Achieng’ and Joseph Abanja narrated three years of pain following the loss of their six-month-old baby girl while addressing the BBI crowd.
Baby Pendo’s head was smashed by police who were pursuing demonstrators in Kisumu’s Nyalenda Slums after Uhuru Kenyatta was announced as the winner of the 2017 presidential elections.
She was then hospitalized but died three days later.
Investigations into her death indicted five police commanders for overseeing brutality and, specifically, for the bludgeoning to death of the infant.
But her parents were today lined up to drum up support for the BBI report that aims to expand the executive even before justice for their baby is seen.
The two lauded the handshake between President Uhuru Kenyatta and ODM leader Raila Odinga that has produced the BBI report.
The two called on the political class to end the violence that erupts after every General Election in the country.
“A flower was uprooted from my garden and it cannot be replaced. Naomba wanasiasa ikue mwisho kile kilitendeka 2017, ” Pendo’s mother said.
Pendo’s father weakly hit on the government for neglecting his family as he begged for assistance from President Kenyatta and Raila Odinga.
“Naomba Rais Uhuru vile mumeshikana na Raila Odinga msiachane mkono. Naona BBI italeta mabadiliko kwa maisha yetu. Wacha damu ya mwanangu iwe ya mwisho kumwagika. Rais kumbuka familia ya Baby Pendo msituache hivo. Mumetuacha tunateseka,” Pendo’s father said.
The appearance of the two at a politically charged even elicited mixed reactions from Kenyans on social media who calling on the state to compensate Baby Pendo’s family and victims of the 2017 disputed poll.
The final BBI report was handed to President Kenyatta and Odinga at Kisii State Lodge last Wednesday.
The report by Garissa Senator Yusuf Haji led task force proposes the introduction of the office of the Prime Minister and two Deputy Prime Ministers.
The Prime Minister shall be appointed by the President within seven days of being sworn into office. It also proposed the reintroduction of the position of Leader of Opposition in Parliament.
