A funeral procession weaves through the heart of one of Nairobi’s poorest neighbourhoods.
As it passes, more and more young men join in.
“There is no god but Allah,” they chant around the casket carrying 19-year-old Ibrahim Wanjiku. He was shot twice in the neck while protesting.
We saw him lying lifeless on a bed in his family home less than 24 hours ago.
Today, we see him held up high and commemorated by his community.
At the cemetery where he is being buried, we find his best friend and neighbour Eugene who was protesting with him in central Nairobi on Tuesday.
He says they were split up after hours of marching when they were tear gassed and everyone ran in a different direction.
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That was the last time he saw him.
“He disappeared and then the message came that he was found at the mortuary in Nairobi. Now we are here, burying our friend,” Eugene tells us between the graves.
“It is so sad.”
His eyes are wet while we speak and he pauses to gather himself in front of the older guys from their neighbourhood.
Eugene is also 19 and said that as he saw his friend’s body lowered into a grave, he knew that it could have been him.
I ask if he will go out and protest again. He looks down with defeat and shakes his head.
“No, no, I think not. [With] my brother now like that – I will not.”
‘The young have lost their innocence’
But across Kenya there are young men willing to march in his place while he recovers from the loss.
More civil disobedience has been scheduled in what is being called “seven days of justice”.
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“The Gen Z have lost their innocence. They were not there when there was post-election violence and they have never been part of any tribal violence – so for them they have grown up in a very unified and non-tribalist country,” says veteran activist Boniface Mwangi.
“They came out in the streets – one country, one nation, one language and the language is love – asking for a better country and they were murdered.
“Kenya has changed forever, it is never going to be the same again.”
