By John Kariuki
In a scathing repudiation of the state's escalating authoritarianism, Githunguri Member of Parliament, Hon. Gathoni Wamuchomba, has vehemently condemned the abhorrent deployment of teargas on students from Butere Girls High School, branding it a grotesque manifestation of state brutality and a chilling affront to democratic civility.
“I stand in resolute solidarity with the Butere Girls’ drama team,” declared Hon. Wamuchomba. “To assail defenseless schoolgirls with chemical agents for articulating artistic truth is a despicable violation of their dignity and a direct assault on the sanctity of free expression.”
The disturbing incident occurred as the students performed a politically charged theatrical piece during a drama festival—an intellectual and artistic endeavor that should have been celebrated as a testament to youthful conscience and civic engagement. Instead, the performance was met with violent suppression by security agents, who launched teargas into the gathering, sending the children into panic and distress.
Hon. Wamuchomba did not mince her words in excoriating the security apparatus, castigating the action as “draconian, unconscionable, and emblematic of a regime intoxicated with impunity.”
“To teargas children is to trample not only on their rights but on the moral soul of the nation,” she lamented. “We must not sit idle as our country slips into an abyss where truth is criminalized, and innocence is brutalized.”
Calling upon fellow lawmakers, civil society actors, and human rights defenders, Wamuchomba urged for an immediate investigation and the prosecution of those culpable. “Our silence would be complicity. Kenya must choose between tyranny and truth,” she implored.
The episode has triggered widespread public outrage, rekindling urgent discourse on the securitization of civic spaces, particularly for the youth. Critics argue that the regime’s growing intolerance toward dissent—whether political or artistic—is symptomatic of a broader descent into autocratic governance.
As the nation grapples with the implications of this egregious act, Hon. Wamuchomba’s bold and unapologetic stance has injected moral clarity into an increasingly murky public discourse—reminding the nation that the measure of our democracy lies in how we treat our most vulnerable: our children.
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