President Uhuru Kenyatta was once teargassed after he was caught up in a confrontation between police and hawkers in Nairobi.
On June 1, 2006, Uhuru, who was the then opposition leader, went to Nairobi’s Central Business District (CBD) to intervene following a standoff between the hawkers and city council officers.
The hawkers were protesting against their eviction from the CBD.
City council officers called in the reinforcement of anti-police officers after being overpowered by the hawkers.
Uhuru’s efforts to calm the irate hawkers, however, proved futile, with the protests turning violent.
Uhuru was caught in the chaos after police were forced to lob teargas to disperse the hawkers.
A video shared on Facebook two years ago by activist Boniface Mwangi who covered the protests, shows Uhuru coughing due to the effects of the gas.
"The then opposition leader Uhuru Kenyatta, who later became Kenya’s president came to the protest to try and calm the angry hawkers to no avail. Instead, he was caught up in the chaos and teargassed. He coughed. He cried. He was chased away by the police. #BMunBounded," Mwangi captioned the video.
A police officer aged 22 years and three hawkers are reported to have lost their lives during the chaos.
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