Large crowds in Nairobi marched in solidarity with Palestinians affected by the war in Gaza.
Drivers and motorbike riders circled the city waving Palestinian flags and chanting, “Free, free Palestine.”
Demonstrators condemned the scale of the humanitarian crisis. Activist Shakira Wafula declared: “The genocide in Palestine has to stop. Children are dying, women are suffering. They are bombing hospitals and residential areas. And Israel basically wants to extinguish the existence of Palestinians.”
Some protestors compared Gaza’s struggle to Africa’s colonial history. Nabil Mohamed told the crowd: “What we can see happening in Gaza right now and what happened in Africa is basically the same because they are going through occupation. We went through colonization. We share the same colonial masters and we can’t just sit back and watch what is happening there, the mass murders, the genocide, the starvation and killing of innocent children and women.”
The conflict erupted after Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack that left about 1,200 people dead in Israel and led to mass kidnappings.
Since then, Gaza’s health ministry reports more than 62,000 Palestinians have been killed, while aid groups warn of famine under Israeli restrictions. Israel disputes these figures, dismissing them as propaganda from Hamas.
